Microsoft offers buyout for up to 7% of US employees

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TLDR

  • Microsoft is offering voluntary retirement buyouts for the first time in its 51-year history, targeting up to ~8,750 US employees.

Key Facts

  • Eligibility: years of service plus age must total 70 or more, with some exceptions.
  • The buyout applies to roughly 7% of Microsoft’s estimated 125,000 US employees.
  • Microsoft has conducted several layoff rounds in recent years, including 9,000 cuts last summer.

Why It Matters

  • Voluntary buyouts give Microsoft a less disruptive path to reducing headcount than announced mass layoffs.
  • The eligibility formula targets longer-tenured and older employees specifically, not the broader workforce.

Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch · 2026-04-23 · Read the original