Microsoft Has Fired Its Entire Global Advertising Sales Team

Microsoft has made its entire global advertising sales team redundant, sources have told Business Insider.

The layoffs - within the Microsoft Advertising division - are expected to affect around 100 staff across the US, UK and other global offices, charged with selling advertising space across Microsoft's MSN, Bing, Xbox, Outlook, Skype and Windows 8 properties.

Sources have told Business Insider it was announced Wednesday Microsoft was making its Microsoft Advertising global sales team redundant as part of the largest ever sweep of job cuts in Microsoft's history announced this summer, which is understood to affect up to 18,000 roles across the entire business.

Business Insider has contacted Microsoft for comment and will update this story once that has been received.

Tech news website CRN.com reported earlier this week that Microsoft Advertising had shut down its global agencies and accounts team, which handle all of Microsoft's relationships with top advertising agencies and brand-side marketers, as well as Yarn, an in-house creative team responsible for keeping marketers up to date with the latest updates to its advertising formats.

But Business Insider understands the cuts go far deeper than that and will see the departure of the entire global sales team.

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