(RTTNews) - Wednesday, software giant Microsoft Inc. (MSFT: News ), said it would slash up to 800 jobs worldwide, in addition to the 5,000 layoffs it already announced in January this year, as part of plans to cut costs. Microsoft said the layoffs were spread across multiple locations and different business units.

With the economic crisis curtailing both corporate as well as personal spending, the company's revenues have been negatively impacted. In order to protect the bottom-line, Microsoft early this year adopted several cost-cutting measures, including job cuts. In January, Microsoft announced up to 5,000 job cuts over the next 18 months. The company confirmed that it has completed those layoffs sooner than it had anticipated 11 months ago.

The total layoffs since January are the largest ever at the Redmond, Washington-based company's 34-year history, affecting around 6.3% of its staff. The company had 91,005 employees worldwide at the end of September.

The company also said it would eliminate merit-based pay raises, cut travel costs by 20%, delay parts of a planned campus expansion and reduce the use of contractors.

"At the same time, we continue to hire in priority areas, but also understand that continuing to manage our businesses closely, as we always do, can mean additional headcount adjustments," the company said in a statement.
The recent move comes shortly after the company reported a decline in profit for the first quarter. Last month, Microsoft reported a decline in first-quarter profit, as the company deferred a portion of its revenue related to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program. On an adjusted basis, however, earnings rose from last year and topped Wall Street view.

The company reported first-quarter net income of $3.574 billion or $0.40 per share, down from $4.373 billion or $0.48 per share reported in the same quarter last year. Revenues for the quarter were $12.92 billion, down from $15.06 billion in the prior year quarter. Adding back the deferred revenue, first-quarter revenue totaled $14.39 billion, a 4% year-over-year decline.

Other large technology corporations like International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and Intel Corp. (INTC: News ), also announced massive layoffs this year, attributing the cuts to the ongoing economic recession. On October 20, computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA: News ), said it would slash up to 3,000 employees over the next year, as the proposed $7.4 billion takeover deal with business software maker Oracle Corp. (ORCL: News ) gets delayed.

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