New buyer of Microsoft’s Metaswitch business vows to continue using Genotin Road office site but staffing levels remain unclear
Microsoft’s office in Genotin Road, Enfield Town
The new owner of one of Enfield’s largest businesses has said it “intends to stay” at a multimillion-pound office building seen as crucial to the local economy.
Microsoft recently confirmed that it was selling Metaswitch, the Enfield technology company it bought just five years ago, to Alianza, a firm based near Salt Lake City in the United States. The deal is set to complete in the next few weeks.
Microsoft’s Metaswitch team has been based at its five-storey office building in Genotin Road, near Enfield Town Station, since it opened in 2021. It had been built for £27m by Enfield Council on a former car park. Prior to this, Metaswitch had operated from a building in Church Street on the other side of town.
Last year, however, news emerged that Microsoft was struggling to make a success out of its Azure for Operators cloud computing system, which it had based in Enfield, and would be making a significant number of redundancies.
The Dispatch has this week spoken to business owners in Enfield Town who rely heavily on staff from Microsoft spending money locally, with both reporting a significant drop in trade in the months since layoffs at Genotin Road began.
There were also fears that the sale of the business to Alianza might see the Genotin Road office closing entirely, but the Utah company has now said this will not be the case.
An Alianza spokesperson said: “A combination of Microsoft and future Alianza employees currently work at the Enfield office. Alianza’s intention is to continue to operate the Enfield office and retain all employees included in this deal with approximately 260 employees identified to join the company as the deal closes.
“The full Alianza executive team has travelled to Enfield as the deal was announced in December and additional team members continue to make trips to facilitate a smooth transition and integration of all resources.
“Alianza is not in a position to speak to Microsoft’s intentions for the remaining employees as their work is outside the scope of this acquisition.”
It was previously reported that around 500 staff were based at Genotin Road as of 2022, with 50 graduates being hired each year, but reports last year suggested that Microsoft would be cutting “hundreds of jobs at its Azure cloud unit”, although not all of these would have been in Enfield. This was said to be part of a “pivot in how it was approaching the telco [telecomms] market”.
Microsoft was contacted for this story but declined to comment on the record.
Rif, the owner of Rif’s Barbers in Genotin Road, told the Dispatch this morning (Wednesday 15th) that he previously had dozens of regular clients who worked at Microsoft but that many had now disappeared. “We are quiet at the moment, I have lost a lost of customers,” Rif said, adding: “I am worried.”
The owner of a coffee shop nearby echoed this and estimated that around 20% of her trade had at one time come from Microsoft staff, but this had recently dropped off. “January is normally a bad month but it is even worse this time,” she said.
Enfield Council has said it has not been notified of any changes regarding Genotin Road. A spokesperson said: “Microsoft has not confirmed to us its intentions regarding its employees or potential redundancies.
“In terms of the building itself, Microsoft has occupied the offices by way of a 15-year lease from Enfield Council. There is approximately an eleven-year legal commitment remaining on the premises.”
In its statement on its acquisition of Metaswitch published last month, Alianza said: “The acquisition [of Metaswitch] will give Alianza a combined customer base of more than 1,000 communications service providers, including 19 of the top 20 global operators, as well as a comprehensive portfolio of services that will streamline the path to a cloud-orchestrated, AI-powered communications future.”
Yousef Khalidi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, added: “Alianza’s commitment to innovation and customer experience sets a strong foundation for Metaswitch customers to continue to grow their business.
“The telecommunications industry remains a priority for Microsoft, and we will continue to empower telecom operators to modernize, monetize, and innovate through our secure AI platform. As we advance our cloud platform and AI capabilities, partners like Alianza are crucial for providing support to our mutual customers.”
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