Sources: Microsoft's Next Round Of Job Cuts Could Top 5,800

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft MSFT was gearing up for another round of job cuts, a reduction that could exceed the 5,800 positions cut in 2009.

According to Bloomberg sources, the cuts could be announced as soon as this week and would likely involve Nokia and overlapping Microsoft divisions, along with marketing and engineering segments.

The 3,200-Word Statement

The rumored job cuts follow a last week's memo from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, calling for greater emphasis on mobile devices, cloud computing and software.

Nadella also forecast big changes at the company -- saying, “Nothing is off the table in how we think about shifting our culture to deliver on this core strategy."

"Organizations will change," he added. "Mergers and acquisitions will occur. Job responsibilities will evolve. New partnerships will be formed. Tired traditions will be questioned. Our priorities will be adjusted. New skills will be built. New ideas will be heard. New hires will be made. Processes will be simplified. And if you want to thrive at Microsoft and make a world impact, you and your team must add numerous more changes to this list that you will be enthusiastic about driving.”

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Although the Microsoft CEO’s 3,200-word mission statement did not mention job cuts, some foreshadowing may have occurred -- with phrases like, “We will increase the fluidity of information and ideas by taking actions to flatten the organization and develop leaner business processes.”

Analysts' Expectations

And with increasing competition from Apple AAPL and Google GOOG, the rumored job cuts were not exactly a surprise.

Jim Cramer’s The Street rated Microsoft a Buy -- adding that rating is "based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate."

"The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas," it continued, "such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, reasonable valuation levels, solid stock price performance and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had subpar growth in net income."

Meanwhile Nomura Equity Research analyst Rick Sherlund reiterated a Buy rating on Microsoft, and raised his price target to $50 from $45. Sherlund said he believes the company’s July 22 fiscal Q4 earnings report would feature what he called “bold moves” -- including a backing-away from mobile devices.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco  had no position in any mentioned securities.