Nokia is planning layoffs in a bid to reduce costs

“Nokia has made considerable progress in executing on its strategy, with excellent momentum in providing high-performance end-to-end networks, targeting new enterprise segments and creating a standalone software business,” says Rajeev Suri, President and CEO, in a press release. The company says that it continues to execute well on its strategy, with a particular focus on high-performance, end-to-end networks, expansion into new enterprise segments, building a standalone software business, and generating significant licensing revenues. However, in order to accelerate this momentum and increase customer focus as the 5G era begins, Nokia plans to realign parts of its organisation. This includes creating a new Enterprise Business Group that consolidates a range of existing activities into one. Nokia also says that it plans to accelerate its momentum in 5G by sharpening the focus of the Mobile Networks Business Group to be on mobile radio products. When it comes to the Nokia’s Cloud Core solutions, the company will be aligning both resources and accountability to the Nokia Software Business Group. These changes, which are planned to come into effect on January 1, 2019, are subject to consultation with employee representatives where appropriate. With this strategy, Nokia is targeting to reduce of its annual operating expenses and production overheads by EUR 700 million by the end of 2020 compared to the end of 2018, of which EUR 500 million is expected from operating expenses. Nokia plans for these savings to come from a wide range of areas, including investments in digitalisation to drive more automation and productivity among other things. These changes are also expected to result in a net reduction of employees globally. While the company does not mention how many employees these measures will affect, it is expecting that the one-time costs of implementing these planned changes is EUR 900 million.