Nokia plans slashing up to 10,000 jobs in 24 months

HELSINKI: As part of a 600-million-euro ($715-million) cost-cutting programme, Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia announced it will reduce to 11% of its workforce within two years on Tuesday.

Announcing the wide-ranging restructuring led by new chief executive Pekka Lundmark, Nokia said that market developments in the next two years will determine the exact number of job losses.

"Planned restructuring is expected to result in an 80,000-85,000 employee organisation, over an 18-24-month period, instead of the approximately 90,000 employees Nokia has today," the company said in a statement.

The firm will also streamline its portfolio and reduce "site fragmentation" in the long-term, the statement said.

Nokia has struggled in the three-way race against Ericsson and Huawei to dominate the super-fast 5G equipment market, losing out on a major Verizon contract in the US last year and failing to make inroads in China.

After Lundmark took the helm in August last year, he scrapped previous CEO Rajeev Suri´s "end-to-end solutions" strategy, replacing it with a more focused approach and pledging to "invest whatever it takes to win in 5G".

The firm announced in February that predicted market share loss in North America in 5G and 4G along with price erosion meant the firm´s 2021 outlook remained unchanged, with a 7-10 percent operating margin target.

"In those areas where we choose to compete, we will play to win," Lundmark said in Tuesday´s statement.

Job cuts from Nokia´s previous round of cost-cutting, announced in 2018, are still underway, including the loss of over 1,000 jobs in France after its takeover of Alcatel-Lucent.

The Finnish group is due to announce further details of its strategy and long-term financial forecasts on Thursday.