Under the leadership of the company's new CEO, Satya Nadella, Microsoft is in a transition phase as it seeks to cement its place in the future. With the acquisition of Nokia, the focus on cloud and mobile services as well as the integration of Windows platform, are only some of the changes that will be implemented in the coming months or years.

In keeping with the path that Nadella has charted for the tech giant, the leader made history by announcing the company's biggest layoff to date. Nadella recently announced that 18,000 employee will be laid off in the coming year.

In order to attain the company's strategic direction and goals, a realignment of the workforce would be necessary, mostly in the Nokia division, Nadella said in a memo.

The letter addressed to all employees, also released to the public, confirms that 18,000 employees will be out of job, 12,500 of whom will be from the Nokia Devices and Services that will be "comprising both professional and factory workers."

"We are moving now to start reducing the first 13,000 positions, and the vast majority of employees whose jobs will be eliminated will be notified over the next six months. It's important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we are adding roles in certain other strategic areas. My promise to you is that we will go through this process in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible. We will offer severance to all employees impacted by these changes, as well as job transition help in many locations, and everyone can expect to be treated with the respect they deserve for their contributions to this company," continued the 47-year-old.

After the memo was issued, "The amount of texts and emails this morning has been shocking," said Nadella, as quoted by gigaom. "Apparently this has been in the works for over 2 months. And if your product group isn't in that circle he drew, it is likely done ... and ‘combined engineering' everywhere - which is a good thing. No separate test teams [going forward]."

Nadella, in the announcement, goes on to discuss simplification of the company where there will be "fewer layers of management, both top down and sideways, to accelerate the flow of information and decision making." Microsoft will also see an integration of Nokia within the company with an emphasis offering on low cost smartphones that will run on Windows.