Nokia announced that it is "balancing" its workforce and eliminating 700 jobs globally with about 340 of those in Finland. The layoffs will occur over the next few months and will affect R&D, sales and marketing as well as internal IT operations. The company said the layoffs will primarily affect Nokia's Enterprise Solutions business group, Nokia's IT organization and some of Nokia's Technology Platforms unit.
The company will likely cut more jobs once it completes its joint venture with Siemens. At 3GSM World Congress, Nokia Siemens said that it wants to realize $1.5 billion in synergies by 2010.
Job cuts seem to be prevalent among infrastructure and handset makers this quarter. Last month, Motorola announced it would layoff about 3,500 workers, Alcatel-Lucent has said it will slash 12,500 jobs in the next three years and Nortel said it will cut 2,900 jobs.
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