Microsoft is cutting fewer than 600 additional jobs globally as part of an ongoing restructuring. The layoffs primarily impact the Xbox division but also affect cloud, AI, and marketing departments.
This overhaul of the gaming division began in July. Management now considers the restructuring process to be 75% complete. As part of the transition, development of the next Halo game will move to the recently acquired Activision.
Separately, Oppenheimer raised its price target for Microsoft to $570. The firm cites business acceleration in Azure and M365 driven by strong Copilot monetization. Analysts believe customers are increasingly standardizing on Microsoft as a primary enterprise AI platform. The company also faces increasing revenue dependence on its partnership with OpenAI.