Microsoft Corp made a second round of layoffs on Thursday, moving towards its target of cutting 18,000 staff, or about 14 percent of its workforce, as Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella tries to slim down the giant software company.

Microsoft gave notice to 2,100 employees on Thursday, 747 of those in the Seattle area, a company spokesman said. That is in addition to 13,000 laid off in July, which means a further 2,900 are set to be laid off over the next nine months or so.

Thursday's cuts were spread over different countries and teams, the spokesman said. The last wave of cuts mostly affected the handset business of Nokia, which Microsoft bought earlier this year.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)