Microsoft to shut down Skype office and sack staff
The decision will come as a blow to London's hopes to become a home for tech companies
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Microsoft is going to shut down Skype’s London offices and sack some of those employees.
The company hasn’t said when the UK office will be closing. But it said the decision has been made because it is going to “unify some engineering positions, potentially putting at risk a number of globally focused Skype and Yammer roles”.
Those Skype employees will take part in a consultation process to decide which staff will stay and which will be sacked, it said.
It isn’t clear whether the closure has anything to do with Brexit, or how long it had been planned for. But Skype has long been one of the few huge European tech success stories, and so will come as a hit to London’s plans to become a tech hub of the future.
Skype was founded in Europe and was first released in 2003. But it has been sold a number of times since, and has moved across to the US – it was sold first to eBay in 2005, then to a group of investors in 2009, and finally was bought by Microsoft in May 2011.
Microsoft’s Skype headquarters are in Luxembourg, but it has much of its development team and other employees in Estonia. Those offices aren’t thought to be closing.
The decision might also have been made as part of a Microsoft effort to replace people from the existing company with those from its own ranks, the Financial Times, which first broke the news, reported.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments