Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is to reduce its workforce by 2,900 in Germany, and up to 1,200 in Finland, as part of its massive restructuring plan announced in November.
The job cuts are part of a previously announced restructuring at Nokia Siemens, which plans to shift its focus entirely to mobile broadband. The vendor, which has also warned that further job losses are possible as parts of the business are sold off, said in November that it would axe almost a quarter of its workforce by the end of 2013--around 17,000 jobs--in an effort to reduce expenses by about €1 billion.
The cuts in Germany will see the number of manufacturing, customer support and R&D locations reduced substantially from 35 to just five, according to a Dow Jones Newswire report. The expense saving plan, which means a 32 per cent reduction in the German headcount, includes the closure of the Munich office, NSN's biggest centre in Germany.
"We are aware that this is a significant reduction in the number of employees," NSN country manager Herman Sledders told Portal.de. "We need to make this difficult step in Germany to make sure NSN is an economically sustainable business."
In Finland, NSN will cut 700 workers in the city of Espoo, 150 in Oulo and around 350 in Tampere, with the cuts representing 17 per cent of the company's 76,900 strong workforce in Finland.
"Finland will continue to be an important R&D and innovation centre for Nokia Siemens Networks," the company said in a statement.
Commenting on this week's announcement, Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, told Reuters: "The cost of a Swedish, German or Finnish engineer is an order of magnitude higher than a Chinese one--this makes the threat from a rampant competitor like Huawei a very daunting prospect."
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Dow Jones Newswire article
- see this Portal.de article (translated via Google Translate)
- see this Reuters article
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