Nokia Set To Sack 10,000 Workers

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Nokia  set for job cut over next two years<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has gathered that Nokia on Tuesday announced plans to cut up to 10&comma;000 jobs within two years to trim costs and invest more in research capabilities&comma; as the Finnish telecoms group seeks to step up its challenge to Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;After taking over the top job last year&comma; Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark has been making changes to recover from product missteps under the company’s previous management that hurt its 5G ambitions and dragged on its shares&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He announced a new strategy in October&comma; under which Nokia will have four business groups and said the company would &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;do whatever it takes” to take the lead in 5G&comma; as it banks on also capturing share from Huawei&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Lundmark is expected to present his long-term strategy&comma; discuss action plans and set financial targets during the company’s capital markets day on Thursday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;As <strong>Nokia<&sol;strong> set for downsizing&comma; the company  said in a statement it expects about 600 million euros &lpar;&dollar;715 million&rpar; to 700 million euros of restructuring and associated charges by 2023&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Decisions that may have a potential impact on our employees are never taken lightly&comma;” Lundmark said in a statement&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;My priority is to ensure that everyone impacted is supported through this process&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nokia currently has 90&comma;000 employees&comma; and has cut thousands of jobs following its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;It expects the current restructuring to lower its cost base by about 600 million euros by the end of 2023&period; Half of the savings are expected to be realised in 2021&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These plans are global and likely to affect most countries&comma;” a Nokia representative said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In Europe&comma; we have only just informed local works councils and expect the consultation processes to start shortly&comma; where applicable&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;France&comma; where Nokia cut more than a thousand jobs last year&comma; was excluded from the current restructuring&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The savings programme is bigger than expected but what is interesting is that it will not actually result in lower costs&comma; said Sami Sarkamies&comma; an analyst with Nordea&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The company is shifting focus from general costs to research and development which is expected to result in growth and better margins in the future&comma;” he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nokia plans to increase investments in research and development and future capabilities including 5G&comma; cloud and digital infrastructure&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Under Lundmark’s predecessor&comma; Nokia had slashed its profit outlook and halted dividend payouts&comma; after product missteps knocked more than a fifth off its market value&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In February Nokia forecast 2021 revenue to fall to between 20&period;6-21&period;8 billion euros &lpar;&dollar;25-26 billion&rpar; from 21&period;9 billion euros in 2020&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;While both Nokia and Ericsson have been gaining more customers as more telecom operators start rolling out 5G networks&comma; the Swedish company has got an edge partly due to it winning 5G radio contracts in China&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nokia has not won any 5G radio contract in China and had also lost out to Samsung Electronics on a part of a contract to supply 5G equipment to Verizon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;