In the first major realignment of workforce since India-born Satya Nadella took over as CEO, Microsoft has announced slashing of up to 18,000 jobs worldwide by next year as the software giant attempts to sharpen focus on cloud and mobile offerings.

The move, however, will have “minimal” impact in India, which is an important geography for the US-based giant.

One of the largest job cuts in the Redmond-headquartered firm’s almost four decade-history, the move will see about 12,500 jobs being reduced from Nokia Devices and Services, comprising both professional and factory workers.

Impact of Nokia deal

As of June 30, 2013, Microsoft had about 99,000 people on a full-time basis, 58,000 in the US and 41,000 worldwide. This, however, does not include the employees moving in post the Nokia-deal.

Earlier this year, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Nokia’s handset division for which it paid over $ 7.2 billion.

In a letter to employees, Nadella said: “The first step to building the right organisation for our ambitions is to realign our workforce. With this in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year.”

Earlier this week too, Nadella had written a similar letter to the employees suggesting structural changes.

“Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs, comprising both professional and factory workers,” said Nadella.

“We are moving now to start reducing the first 13,000 positions, and the vast majority of employees whose jobs will be eliminated will be notified over the next six months,” he added.

-DC

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