Nokia to cut 4,000 jobs by end of 2012

Written by Antony Leather

April 28, 2011 | 11:17

Tags: #job-loss #symbian

Companies: #apple #microsoft #nokia

Nokia has announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs by 2012 in an effort to shed €1bn (£886m) of costs. Of the 4,000 jobs being axed, 700 are in the UK, with Denmark and Finland feeling the brunt of the culling.

As if this wasn't enough, 3,000 more Symbian jobs are also set to transfer to consulting firm Accenture, meaning the sweeping changes will affect more than 5 per cent of the 123,553-strong workforce that the company reported at the end of 2009.

According to Nokia, the main reason for the job cuts is the company's move to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform for its mobile handsets, after ditching its previous Symbian-based OS.

The company said it expects to see employees transfer by the end of 2011, with the job losses taking effect from 2012. Details of Accenture's involvement were highlighted by Nokia spokeswoman Jennifer Lyons, who explained that 'the scope of the agreement with Accenture is to outsource development of Symbian software activities to help us deliver the 150 million more Symbian smartphones we expect to sell, but does not involve the transfer of platform ownership or intellectual property.'

She added that Nokia 'will continue to make the Symbian platform available to platform developer collaborators at http://symbian.nokia.com.'

Jo Harlow, Nokia's executive vice president for smart devices, also added that the 3,000 transfers demonstrated the company's 'commitment to provide our Symbian employees with potential new career opportunities.'

The news follows a long line of bad tidings for the once-dominant mobile manufacturer, which announced 600 job cuts in 2008, while also leaving the Japanese market later that year.

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