Nokia To Begin Planned Layoffs After Acquisition Of Alcatel-Lucent

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Telecom manufacturing giant Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year and will lay off workers globally.

Not everyone is happy at Nokia

“This (1,300) is a terrible figure, we have rather difficult employment situation in the sector to begin with,” Pertti Porokari, chairman of the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland, said. “Seems that Finnish workers have lost this match (against the French).”

The company’s offices in France will only cut 400 jobs, but in turn, will also create 500 jobs in research and development. This is in line with a promise made during negotiations of the Alcatel deal.

“The pledges made by the company when it bought Alcatel-Lucent have been kept,” said Frédéric Aussedat, a representative of the CFE-CGC union in France.

How will this effect the global market?

This “global synergy and transformation program” already began today. The company expects many of the cuts to come from research and development, sales, and corporate positions.

Globally, the telecom network equipment maker is planning to cut thousands of jobs. This will include 1,400 in Germany and 1,300 in Finland, where the company is based. This has been a part of a cost-cutting program following the merger of Alcatel-Lucent earlier in January 2016.

The acquisition was intended to help Nokia compete with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei companies, where tough competition and low prices were limiting growth for the former handset maker.
The telecommunications giant is looking to see nearly a billion euros in operating cost synergies from the deal with Alcatel by 2018. The Franco-American company was taken over by Nokia in January of 2016. The deal was worth upwards of 15.6 billion euros in an all-stock deal.

“These actions are designed to ensure that Nokia remains a strong industry leader,” said Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri. “When we announced the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent we made a commitment to deliver EUR 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.”

Founded in 1865, Nokia has had many lives in its 150 year plus run.

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