Nokia is to lay off up to 700 people globally, mostly in its enterprise business operation, in a move to increase efficiency and improve competitiveness.
The layoffs, expected within the next few months, include some 340 workers in Finland. The cuts will affect research and development, related sales and marketing, as well as internal information technology operations, the world's largest mobile phone maker said.
Nokia said it will try to transfer some of the affected workers to different posts.
"We have a number of positions open in Nokia, and the impacted people are naturally priority candidates for positions that match their competencies," said Juha Akras, a senior vice president in the company's human resources department. "We have a good track record from previous years of redeploying employees in similar situations." In 2006, Nokia rotated 10,000 personnel into new positions within the Finland-based group, he said.
Nokia said it plans to "sharpen its focus on markets where there is greater return on investment" in its enterprise solutions unit.
"If you don't keep on developing the organization the whole time then you won't stay in the competition and you won't survive as a successful company," Nokia spokeswoman Arja Suominen said.
The company's US shares were off 3 cents at $22.93 in Midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Earlier this year, Nokia and the German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG confirmed they planned a joint venture during the first quarter of 2007, but warned of layoffs.
The new venture, expected to generate some $20 billion in sales, will create between 6,000 and 9,000 overlapping positions that may need to be cut over the next four years, the two companies said.
Nokia, based in Espoo near the Finnish capital, employed 68,500 people at the end of last year, an increase of 16 percent on 2005.
AP