Europe

Nokia Siemens Networks to cut 9,000 jobs

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-05-04 20:55

Nokia Siemens Networks, an international telecoms equipment manufacturer, said Friday that it plans to lay off 9,000 employees globally by 2010.

The company will cut some 3,000 jobs in Germany from the present 13,000 and about 1,700 in Finland from the 10,000 now employed, according to the lay-off plan.

Finland-based Nokia Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG merged their networks business and formed the fifty-fifty joint venture last year. Both Nokia and Siemens said at that time that the new company intended to cut 10-15 percent of its workforce after it started operations.

Nokia Siemens Networks expects the job cuts to remain in the range at about 9,000 people, the company said in a statement.

The company also said the job cuts would play a role in helping it gain annual savings of 2 billion U.S. dollars.

Nokia Siemens Networks lowered its growth forecast for 2007 last month, saying it would likely grow very slightly this year.

As the world's third-largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, the company aims to challenge the leaders in the industry including Sweden-based Ericsson and French-U.S. company Alcatel-Lucent.