Microsoft announces unprecedented voluntary buyout program

The massive company that gave the world Windows, Word and Excel announced an unprecedented voluntary buyout program for employees on Monday.

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Approximately 60,000 Microsoft workers, or 27% of the company, are eligible to cash in on the buyout, according to Business Insider, which first reported the program. Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer, wrote in a memo to employees on Monday that employees in the U.S., Canada, India and the United Kingdom were included. 

The buyouts are available for employees at “Level 70” and below, which includes senior management positions. The memo did not list the terms of the buyout offer except to say that eligible employees will receive the details “within the next few hours.”

“This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support,” Coleman said in the memo. “It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.”

Coleman noted that this move was different from a voluntary retirement program announced earlier this year. In that move, announced in April, the company offered retirement packages to employees with a combined age and years of employment of 70 or more, with around 7% of U.S. employees eligible, according to CNBC. About 30% of eligible employees took the offer.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee,” Coleman wrote in the memo. “These are a few of the ways we’re trying to meet different business needs while continuing to create opportunities for our own people to grow and contribute.”

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Microsoft’s last major layoffs took place over the summer, when the company cut about 4,800 jobs in its Xbox division. Last year, the company announced two major layoff rounds, cutting 9,000 jobs in July and 6,000 in May. CEO Satya Nadella attributed last year’s cuts to the dynamic times of the tech industry amid the artificial intelligence boom.

“Getting both the product and platform fight for the AI wave is our North Star!” Nadella wrote in a July 24, 2025, staff memo.

The Washington state-based tech giant has offices in San Francisco, Berkeley and Mountain View. The company did not respond to SFGATE’s questions about how many Bay Area-based employees would be eligible for the program or whether the move was anticipated to precede any potential layoffs. 

Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown securely at [email protected] and matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.