Nokia has commenced a program to cut thousands of jobs worldwide as part of the cost-cutting and transformation program associated with the takeover of Alcatel-Lucent.
The company plans to cut 1,300 jobs in Finland, 1,400 in Germany and 400 in France as part of the headcount reduction program, which will take place between now and the end of 2018.
But Nokia also agreed to create 500 new R&D jobs in France as a condition of receiving approval from the French government to acquire Alcatel-Lucent.
Nokia has not yet revealed how many jobs will be eliminated worldwide. The company has around 104,000 employees.
The job cuts form part of a program aimed at achieving €900 million ($1.02 billion) in annual operating cost synergies by 2018. Nokia said the program is also aimed at adapting to challenging market conditions and shifting resources to important new and upcoming technologies including 5G, the cloud and the IoT.
“These actions are designed to ensure that Nokia remains a strong industry leader,” commented Nokia president and CEO Rajeev Suri.
“When we announced the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent we made a commitment to deliver €900 million in synergies – and that commitment has not changed. We also know that our actions will have real human consequences and, given this, we will proceed in a way that that is consistent with our company values and provide transition and other support to the impacted employees.”