Yesterday, there were reports that Microsoft is closing its R&D unit in South Korea. It was reported that the 21 R&D employees in Seoul were ordered to relocate and among them 10 R&D workers got call from Microsoft Redmond to move there.
Microsoft today responded to the report that there was no real R&D lab at South Korea as they have at other locations around the world. The unit dissolved was a regular Office team workforce and it was due to work completion in some product area.
The phrase R&D has been misinterpreted and Microsoft’s R&D is not moving from South Korea. Last month, after evaluations that the company regularly does, Microsoft made adjustments to its Office workforce in South Korea. With work completed in a particular product area, some roles have been redeployed to Office in their Redmond headquarters, consolidating with the Office team there. Some roles moved to other areas within Microsoft. Some employees chose to accept severance packages and leave the company. None of this, however, involved positions in R&D or Microsoft Research or China.
Source: AsiaOne.com via: Neowin