Nokia Siemens Networks is changing its name to mark the next chapter in its history as a fully owned Nokia company, but any employees hoping for a shiny new moniker will be disappointed. The company will now be known as Nokia Solutions and Networks (thereby keeping the "NSN" acronym).
Yet as the "new" name was revealed to the world, Bloomberg reported that, according to unnamed sources, further job cuts could be ahead at NSN in order to offset declining sales and boost profitability. The report said NSN is considering cutting about 8,500 jobs through the sale or closure of plants or the outsourcing of operations. The vendor had about 50,500 workers at the end of June. The Bloomberg report stressed that no final decision has been made, and that any plan would have to be approved by Nokia.
NSN declined to comment on the report. "With our ownership change and rebranding as NSN, it's not surprising that there'll be all manner of conjecture about our plans," NSN spokeswoman Carol DeMatteo told FierceWireless.
The vendor said that the new name reflects NSN's change of ownership following Nokia's €1.7 billion acquisition of Siemens' entire 50 per cent stake, which was announced on July 1 and just completed.
In fact, other than what NSN actually stands for, little has changed: Rajeev Suri will continue as CEO and the NSN executive board will also remain the same. NSN also reaffirmed commitment to being a "more independent entity."
The vendor's retention of NSN certainly serves to highlight that it is business as usual at the company. Indeed, NSN has recently seen signs of a turnaround following various cuts and strategy changes, and will wish to continue on this upward trajectory.
"While our name and brand have changed, I would like to emphasise that our overall strategy and our focus on mobile broadband remain the same," Suri said in a statement. "Our customers will not notice any difference in our unstinting commitment to delivering superior technology and services across the world. Today's announcement is, however, an exciting new chapter in our transformation story."
NSN has restructured itself to focus on mobile broadband. Concurrently, the company has been cutting jobs since 2012. The company has said it will cut up to total of 17,000 jobs by the end of this year, and has been jettisoning non-core units and assets.
For more:
- see this NSN release
- see this Bloomberg article
Related Articles:
NSN records operating profit, but Q2 sales fall 17%
Nokia's Q2 fails to assuage concerns, but NSN is a bright spot
Nokia 'buys a future' with NSN, but does that future include devices?
Analysis: Nokia gets Siemens' NSN stake for a steal, but will that be enough?
Nokia paying $2.21B for Siemens' stake in NSN