Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has decided to close Skype office in Sweden, according to a new report.
The Redmond-based tech giant is preparing to close the Skype Sweden office in Stockholm, where it has 120 employees, DI Digital via Business Insider reported.
All of Skype Sweden are likely to lose their job, according to the report.
The closure is part of Microsoft’s long-term plan to reduce the geographic spread of Skype offices.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) confirmed that it is in process of closing the Skype Sweden office.
“Microsoft has made the difficult decision to start consultations with trade unions to close the Skype office in Stockholm, potentially putting at risk all 120 employees,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to The Local.
“This proposal is consistent with our long-term aim to reduce our geographical footprint and co-locate teams to enable better collaboration, improved engineering efficiencies and increase the pace of innovation and quality. We are deeply committed to doing everything we can to help all the impacted through this process and where possible, offer new opportunities to those affected,” the spokesperson added.
Skype was founded by Dane Janus Friis and Swede Niklas Zennström in 2003. The company acquired by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion.
The Stockholm office has been generating revenues of about SEK 250 million per year. It made a profit of SEK 31 million in 2016, according to DI Digital.
In other Skype news, Microsoft has added new features in a bid to compete with Chime, an Amazon Web Services unified communication service launched by Amazon in February. The new feature coming to Skype are Auto Attendant, Call Queues, and Skype for Business Call Analytics, according to a report from The Register.
Auto Attendant is designed for automated answering and call routing, while Call Queues will route calls to the next available attendant. Skype for Business Call Analytics will let users running the integrated voice/data infrastructure tackle any problems.
Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were trading up 0.29% in the pre-market session.
