Microsoft Corporation plans to announce a new round of layoffs as early as Wednesday to cut costs further, the New York Times reported.

The latest job cuts are in addition to the 18,000 jobs that Microsoft said it planned to cut a year ago, the newspaper said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The layoffs are expected to affect employees at the company's hardware group, including the smartphone business that it acquired from Nokia last year, the newspaper said.

Reuters could not immediately reach Microsoft for comment outside regular US business hours.