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Nokia job cuts

April 6, 2016

Telecom network equipment maker Nokia has announced it's shedding thousands of jobs in Finland and Germany and elsewhere as part of a huge savings program. The move follows the takeover of Alcatel-Lucent.

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Nokia, Alcatel logos
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Lehtikuva/M. Ulander

Bloomberg reported Nokia was looking to eventually shed a total of 10-15,000 jobs from its global workforce of 106,000 over the next couple of years.

The telecom network equipment provider said Wednesday it was aiming to cut 1,400 jobs in Germany and another 1,300 in its native Finland by 2018 as part of a cost-cutting program.

The savings scheme came in the wake of Nokia's takeover of Franco-American Alcatel-Lucent in January for 15.6 billion euros ($17.7 billion).

The merger was meant to help the companies compete with Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei in a market where limited growth is pressuring prices.

5G technology set to revolutionize wireless communication

R&D in Germany

Analysts said the job cuts in Germany would most likely affect all of the production facilities there. But Nokia indicated that the country would remain pivotal for the firm as an important location for its research and development activities.

Nokia said much emphasis would be put on working on the next generation of 5G transmission technology and shaping the Internet of Things.

More details on Nokia's future orientation and its job cuts plans are expected on May 10 when the company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings report.

hg/cjc (Reuters, dpa)