Nokia May Cut up to 14% of Workforce

After a slew of bad years, Nokia still hasn’t found their footing yet. Once one of the dominant handset and wireless hardware firms, the Finnish firm has struggled in the changing landscape. 2 years after dumping their Lumia and handset business on Microsoft, the company looks to be cutting more of its staff. The cuts come as part of the massive $16.6 billion Alcatel-Lucent acquisition, with up to 14% of staff from both firms being cut.

According to the source, Nokia is set to cut 10,000 to 15,000 jobs in total out of their global workforce of 104,000. The cuts come as part of the $1 billion in cuts due to the overlap between Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent. These cuts will occur in over 30 countries but will heavily impact Germany and France but Finland will be the hardest hit. This comes as the multinational refocuses their attention away from the mobile device and infrastructure market and more into their telecommunications side of their business.

In order to find more growth, Nokia is turning to software and service contracts as they are generally more lucrative. What this all means for future Nokia handsets, their supposed mobile comeback and other hardware ventures like the OZO Camera remains to be seen. I for one hope the company re-enters the smartphone market.