Microsoft offers buyouts to around 60,000 employees, reports say

techcrunch.com Oct 26, 2026

Microsoft offers buyouts to around 60,000 employees, reports say

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Oct 26, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Microsoft is extending voluntary buyout offers to roughly 60,000 employees across the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom, targeting staff at the vice‑president level and below on selected teams. The program, announced in a memo from Chief People Officer Amy Coleman, excludes workers in data‑center operations, sales and marketing. Eligible participants will receive a severance‑style package that mirrors standard exit benefits, giving them “greater flexibility” to transition out of the company. This follows an earlier buyout round for retirement‑age staff, where more than 30 percent of the 8,750 eligible workers accepted. Microsoft did not comment to TechCrunch when asked for further details about the new offer.

💡 Why It Matters

· The scale of the offer signals Microsoft’s aggressive shift toward a leaner, AI‑focused workforce, reshaping talent allocation across its global operations.

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Xbox announces T-Mix with T-Mobile

Xbox has announced that Game Pass will be available to eligible U.S. T‑Mobile customers through the new “T‑Mix” plan starting in November. Subscribers can choose Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Premium as a bundled benefit, usable on consoles, PC, Smart TVs, and cloud devices. T‑Mix replaces fixed bundles with a modular “Picks” system across Standard, More, and Loaded tiers, requiring 2 or 3 Picks for Premium or Ultimate. The service allows four yearly swaps of partner perks, giving users flexibility. This marks the first U.S. carrier to integrate Game Pass directly into a mobile plan.

💡 By embedding Game Pass into a telecom plan, Microsoft reduces subscription friction and taps a new distribution channel, potentially boosting user adoption and consolidating monthly expenses for gamers.

eurogamer.net · Oct 26

As beloved Dishonored studio faces closure, Xbox agrees union request to extend…

Xbox has granted Arkane Lyon, the French studio behind Dishonored and Deathloop, an additional month of consultation as it continues to seek a buyer, pushing the deadline from 13 November to early December. The extension follows union pressure and complies with France’s Florange Law, which mandates a three‑month period to find a purchaser before a shutdown can proceed. If no deal materialises, the studio faces closure and the loss of 217 jobs. Microsoft’s spokesperson emphasized that the move is part of an ongoing effort to explore partnership options for the studio’s remaining projects, notably the near‑complete Marvel Blade title. Arkane’s fate is tied to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s broader “reset” plan that will ultimately cut 3,200 positions across Microsoft’s first‑party network.

💡 The delay keeps a critically acclaimed development team alive long enough to potentially release Marvel Blade, preserving a high‑profile IP and averting a rare loss of creative talent in Europe’s gaming hub.

windowslatest.com · Oct 26

Tested: Windows 11’s new Outlook now beats Outlook Classic at one thing…

Microsoft has rolled out an “All Accounts” view to the new Outlook for Windows, delivering a unified inbox that aggregates messages from every linked account. The feature, announced in June and deployed from late September to late October, adds a folder‑pane section that combines Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Archive and other folders across accounts, allowing users to read, delete, search, move, archive and flag mail without switching mailboxes. Activation is optional via Settings > Mail > Folder pane. Admin controls are slated for release later this month. The update restores a capability previously available only in the retired Windows Mail app. Early testers report faster triage of work and personal messages, though cross‑account search and shared mailbox support remain incomplete for power users in enterprises.

💡 By finally offering a unified inbox on Windows, Outlook closes a long‑standing usability gap that forced many professionals to juggle multiple apps, accelerating adoption of Microsoft's new mail platform.

windowscentral.com · Oct 26

Microsoft’s new Edge option for Mac trades speed for stability, and that’s…

Sean Endicott, a journalist at Windows Central, reports on Microsoft’s software and hardware, including Windows 11, Surface, Microsoft 365, and AI initiatives. Since 2017, he has published over a thousand pieces, covering breaking news, feature stories, and weekly summaries in the Windows Wrap column. Endicott earned a First Class degree in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and has experience in live production. Outside tech, he coaches youth American football in Nottingham, earning BAFCA Youth Coach of the Year in 2024.

💡 Endicott’s extensive reporting gives consumers reliable insight into Microsoft’s evolving products, shaping purchasing decisions. His dual expertise in journalism and coaching exemplifies how tech professionals can influence both industry and community.

thehackernews.com · Oct 26

Microsoft 365 Token-Replay Attacks Compromise 97 Accounts at 79 Organizations

Researchers at Huntress uncovered a Microsoft 365 token‑replay campaign that hijacked sign‑in sessions and replayed stolen access tokens to infiltrate 97 accounts across 79 organizations between July 14 and September 22, 2026. The attackers used an adversary‑in‑the‑middle login page to capture credentials and MFA codes, then harvested the resulting tokens and “sprayed” them at scale, achieving 497 successful sign‑ins from over 200,000 attempts traced to the 193.26.115.0/24 subnet. After gaining access, they added rogue authenticator apps and registered 48 fake Entra devices to maintain persistence, sometimes removing existing MFA within three hours. Hidden email rules were also deployed to delete or forward messages, and compromised mailboxes were used to send spam before Microsoft Entra ID Protection flagged the accounts as high risk. The operation originated from a Romanian IP linked to the AsyncRAT‑infected hosting provider 1337 Services GmbH, which has connections to previously seized RDP rental services.

💡 By bypassing MFA through token replay, the attack demonstrates a scalable method to subvert modern authentication, forcing organizations to rethink token‑validation and device‑registration safeguards.

windowslatest.com · Oct 26

Microsoft confirms Teams will let third-party tools scan your meetings for deepfakes…

Microsoft announced that Teams will support certified third‑party applications that scan meeting audio and video for synthetic media such as deepfakes, with a targeted release beginning mid‑November 2026 for desktop, Mac and web clients. The detection engine resides with the external provider, while Teams only displays alerts and lets administrators configure policies. Microsoft has not disclosed which vendors will be certified, the licensing model, or the extent of data each provider can access. The feature, first listed on the Microsoft 365 roadmap in October, follows an FBI warning about increasingly convincing AI‑generated content on live calls. Admins will need to install the chosen app, grant Calls.ReportSyntheticMedia.All permission, and set SyntheticMediaDetection policies before the capability becomes generally available to all enterprise users.

💡 By inserting AI‑driven verification directly into live collaboration, organizations can stop impersonation attacks before they derail decisions, turning Teams into a frontline defense rather than a passive communication tool.