Sales, marketing and support bearing the brunt of new Microsoft job cuts?

Where is Microsoft cutting jobs in Round 2 of its planned 5,000-person layoff? An alleged internal e-mail indicates that Microsoft's Sales, Marketing and Service Group (SMSG) will be bearing the brunt of the latest cuts.

CEO Steve Ballmer isn't the only one firing off layoff missives to Microsoft employees on May 5. The lead cost cutter, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, seemingly has sent a Wave 2 layoff memo to the troops, as well. (I say "seemingly" here more as a formality than anything. Microsoft officials are declining to verify the authenticity of any memos about cost cuts other than CEO Steve Ballmer's May 5 e-mail.)

Turner's alleged e-mail indicates that Microsoft's Sales, Marketing and Service Group (SMSG) will be bearing the brunt of Round 2 of the Microsoft layoffs. Turner's memo is up on the Mini-Microsoft India blog.

"As most of you would be aware, our Q3 performance brought our first quarterly revenue decline in our history and a decline in year over year profit by 32%. As announced in January, Microsoft will take responsible action to manage our cost structure in the current environment and unfortunately these actions will impact the worldwide SMSG organization.

"This current business situation is unlike anything we have seen in our lifetime and we must continue to keep a close watch on the constantly evolving and fluid environment and align our resources and business priorities accordingly."

What is SMSG? From Microsoft's Web site:

"Microsoft Sales, Marketing, and Service Group (SMSG) is the sales, marketing, consulting, technical support, and customer service arm of the world's leading software company. The organization helps customers and partners discover and implement high value Microsoft solutions that generate rapid, meaningful, and measurable results. With its global partner network and support infrastructure, Microsoft SMSG enables the successful adoption, deployment, and use of Microsoft solutions and technologies for all customers around the globe, from the individual to the enterprise."

Mini-Microsoft India also has posted a note allegedly sent to Microsoft India employees noting that one percent of the Indian employee rolls are being cut in the latest round of layoffs.

(Thanks to Who da'Punk, a k a, the original Mini-Microsoft blogger, for the pointers.)

Update (May 6): Microsoft's advertising units seem to have gotten chopped in Round 2 of layoffs. The Massive in-game ad team reportedly got hit hard. One adCenter Community program manager who got the ax wrote a first-hand account about his layoff.