Microsoft lays off 747 area employees today as part of larger cuts

SEATTLE -- Microsoft announced it eliminated 747 jobs in the Puget Sound region Thursday as part of the company's plan to eliminate 18,000 jobs by the year's end.

Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos told Q13 FOX News the company eliminated 2,100 jobs worldwide Thursday, including the 747 in our area.

The company announced earlier this year that 18,000 jobs would be eliminated over a period of six months; the company's biggest round of layoffs ever. 13,000 jobs were eliminated in July, with the remainder to take place over subsequent rounds of cuts.

Gellos did not specify on the eliminated job titles or  functions.

Microsoft had more than 125,000 full-time employees on its payroll in mid-July. The 18,000 layoffs account for about 14 percent of overall employees.

The company has roughly 43,000 employees in the Seattle area. According to the Seattle Times, Thursday's cuts bring area job loss to 2,098 employees..

Most of the layoffs came from Nokia’s devices and services business that Microsoft recently bought. In a memo to Microsoft’s staff earlier this year, Nadella said that Microsoft found many redundancies between the two companies, including both professional and factory workers.

Nadella said Microsoft was in need of a “culture change.” Microsoft’s rivals, including Google, Apple and Amazon, have in many ways beaten Microsoft at the mobile and cloud game in recent years.

“First, we will simplify the way we work to drive greater accountability, become more agile and move faster,” Nadella said. ” As part of modernizing our engineering processes the expectations we have from each of our disciplines will change.”

This story is breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available.