Nokia says it's going to cut up to 14,000 jobs
- Nokia said on Thursday it is planning to cut up to 14,000 jobs — or around 16% of its workforce.
- The company is planning to lower costs by up to 1.2 billion euros by 2026.
- In a separate statement, the company said sales declined by 15% in the third quarter.
Finland-based mobile company Nokia is planning to cut between 9,000 to 14,000 jobs amid a sales slump and reduced demand for 5G equipment, it said on Thursday. The higher end of these cuts is likely to impact around 16% of the company's current global workforce of 86,000.
The layoffs are part of cost-cutting measures to reduce expenses by 400 million euros, or $421 million, in 2024 and a further 300 million euros in 2025.
The company wants to reduce total costs by 1.2 billion euros by 2026.
In a separate statement, Pekka Lundmark, the CEO of Espoo-based Nokia, said that the company's third-quarter sales of 4.9 billion euros had declined by 15% compared to the previous year due to macroeconomic challenges and higher interest rates.
The company reported operating profits of 424 million euros in the third quarter, a 36% drop from the same period last year.
"Resetting the cost base is a necessary step to adjust to market uncertainty and to secure our long-term profitability and competitiveness," Lundmark said.
Nokia — which sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014 — expects to meet the lower end of its sales targets in the third quarter, which were set in the range of 23.2 billion to 24.6 billion euros.
Nokia also slashed its outlook for the overall mobile networks market in 2023 and is now expecting a 9% reduction, compared to a previous forecast of a 2% drop. The company's slowing 5G growth in India could no longer compensate for the similar slowdown in North America, said Lundmark.
A Nokia spokesperson directed Insider to the company statement in response to a request for comment.
Watch: How tech layoffs could affect the economy
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