News

Nokia to Lay Off Hundreds of Research/Development Staff

January 10, 2005 by Jeff Shepard

Nokia Corp. (Finland) reported that it plans to lay off "a few hundred" research and development workers globally, including up to 250 in Finland in a move to cut research and development costs. The exact number of layoffs, mostly in Finland and Germany, will be decided later. Nokia employs 3,000 people in multimedia, half of them in Finland. The German unit has 400 personnel.

Nokia reported that the layoffs, to be made this year, were aimed at increasing "the efficiency of research and development work across the company." Nokia had earlier set a target to bring overall Nokia research and development expenditure down to 9% to 10% of net sales by the end of 2006. Negotiations with employees in Finland have begun and are expected to take several months, after which the number of global layoffs also will be decided.