On November 16, Osman Gunduz, the head of the Azerbaijan Internet Forum, stated that Microsoft's representative office in Azerbaijan ceased operations. 

According to him, the Azerbaijani representative office of the transnational corporation headquartered in Redmond (Washington) is on the verge of closing. The head of the office and most employees were relieved of their positions. "They were not even offered jobs in offices in other countries," Gunduz said, noting that the reasons for the closure were not reported.

"The fact that Microsoft is leaving Azerbaijan is simply incomprehensible," he complained.

The Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan, commenting on the reports on the closure of the Microsoft office in Baku, said each company determines its strategy and scope of activity. At the same time, the Department stressed that this does not mean the termination of the existing cooperation between the global software developer and the government of Azerbaijan and that the company continues to maintain ties with state structures and private companies in Azerbaijan through its partners.

Notably, it was recently reported that the American IT giant would lay off about 1,000 employees across multiple divisions, including Xbox and Edge, as Axios. According to data on the Microsoft website, the company employed about 221,000 people worldwide as of mid-October this year.