After removing vacancies in its Office and Windows divisions and laying off some of its 180,000 employees in July, Microsoft this week made additional cuts concentrated in its Modern Life Experiences (MLX) group, one of the groups responsible. of customer orientation. R&D project in the company. According to posts on LinkedIn, the recent layoffs have also impacted contract recruiters in multiple locations, including Chicago.
It is not known how many employees were laid off. When reached for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson declined to provide details, but did not deny that the layoffs had taken place.
Spread across cities such as Vancouver and San Francisco, Microsoft’s MLX Group grew out of the 2015 acquisition of Mobile Data Labs, the company behind MileIQ, which at the time was one of popular mileage tracking for deductions and reimbursements. After spending several years fine-tuning MileIQ under Microsoft, the team expanded its scope by partnering with the Microsoft Family Safety Group to create the first version of Family Safety apps for iOS and Android.
A leadership shakeup in February 2020 put Eran Megiddo, CVP of Windows Product & Education, at the helm of MLX and Microsoft’s Education Group. Former Mobile Data Labs CTO Max Wheeler, who joined Microsoft after the acquisition, remained – and still remains – engineering director.
In June 2020, MLX Group launched Money in Excel, a template that allows Excel users to automatically connect bank, credit card, investment, and loan accounts to Excel to receive personalized information. (Money in Excel is scheduled to shut down on June 30, 2023, according to a support article.) The team was also tasked with incubating “innovative new customer experiences” for families across Windows, Xbox, mobile and the web, according to a report. relevant job offer.
MLX was, at one time, part of a larger effort within Microsoft to win back consumers by focusing on “prosumer” products and services, including family-oriented services. In quick succession, Microsoft introduced a “kid mode” for consumer-centric Edge and Teams features, as well as personal subscriptions for Microsoft 365. A cross-functional group, Modern Life Planning, was tasked with working on pricing, strategy, partnerships and acquisitions to further develop the consumer business.
Whether the MLX Group layoffs signal a shift in strategy is an open question. But what’s clear is that Microsoft fell short of expectations in its final fiscal quarter, amid headwinds of falling consumer demand and slowing PC production.
“As we navigate this period, we will continue to invest in future growth while maintaining an intense focus on operational excellence and execution discipline,” Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said during the results. of the company for the fourth quarter of 2022 in July.
