LONDON — Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia said Thursday (April 10) it plans to cut 1,800 jobs from its infrastructure division as part of a restructuring that will see the company try to incorporate efficiencies into its research and development and support operations.
The company said it would cut 10 percent of its overall staff at Nokia Networks with up to 1,100 jobs going from its Finnish operations in R&D, operations, sales and marketing and support.
According to a Nokia spokesman, a large proporation of the staff being made redundant will be Nokia's R&D engineers and the other positions include production and sales staff. Up to 150 positions will go in the U.S and less than 100 positions in Germany and Italy. The company is unsure whether the job cuts will affect the U.K and foresees "less than a handful or maybe none at all" going from the company's U.K. R&D sites.
"We are determined to continue with our leadership strategy, targeting leadership position in mobile networks. The measures outlined today support this objective," said Sari Baldauf, president of Nokia Networks.
"Together with our relentless focus on customer needs and operational efficiency they will enable a sustainable and profitable business for the future."
The company said it would restructure its R&D spending and review the cost, scope, timing and number of programs as well as reduce its number of product configurations for customers. According to the company, its aim is to continue in product and architecture leadership within the GSM, EDGE and WCDMA markets, while also increasing the efficiency of its R&D efforts.
Nokia announces its first quarter results next week but the company warned the market last month that it expects to post a substantial loss for its first quarter this year. The Networks group had 17,500 employees at the end of last year but the company already announced one round of job cuts in February and 550 employees were affected.
