Microsoft closing Skype office in London, laying off employees

  Microsoft plans to close Skype's London office and lay off most of the nearly 400 people employed there, according to the Financial Times. Microsoft confirmed the layoffs to an extent, telling the Times that it has "made the decision to unify some engineering positions, potentially putting at risk a number of globally focused Skype and Yammer roles."

Skype will still maintain offices throughout the world, including in Redmond, Palo Alto, Vancouver, and several locations in Europe. But the layoffs still indicate a shift in priorities, with anonymous former employees telling the Times that Microsoft has increasingly been taking control of Skype, replacing Skype's employees with its own.

Skype was one of the first big voice chatting apps, but it's increasingly come under threat from basically all sides. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, among others, offer the same features and have enormous user bases. Meanwhile, business tools like Slack are beginning to build in the features, like video chatting, that people have traditional gone to Skype for.

SOURCE: Financial Times