Brief: Nokia getting rid of 220 employees in Japan working on R&D, brings total to 550
By Stefan Constantinescu on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 8:41 AM PST In Nokia
Just last week we reported that Nokia will be cutting 330 jobs in Finland and Denmark, jobs in the company’s R&D department. Today Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has announced that they’re letting go of 220 more R&D employees, this time in Japan:
Nokia reduces R&D operations in Japan
Tokyo, Japan – As part of its global efforts to align its research and development (R&D) operations to be in line with its focused portfolio of future products, Nokia will be reducing its R&D activities in Japan. As previously announced last week, Nokia plans to reduce some of its R&D activities in Finland and Denmark.
Today’s announcement will impact approximately 220 employees in Japan. The total number would represent slightly more than 1% of Nokia’s R&D personnel globally.
Nokia will continue its significant sourcing activities in Japan. Japanese manufacturers are important partners who play a critical role in Nokia’s global supply-chain strategy and with whom Nokia continues to develop its world-class logistics operations.
The Japanese operation of Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia’s network infrastructure business, is not affected by this announcement and continues uninterrupted.
Vertu, Nokia’s exclusive line of handcrafted mobile phones for the luxury market, will also continue operations in Japan unaffected by today’s announcement.
That’s 550 research and development people gone in one week. What the hell is going on?! Oh yea, that’s right, Nokia reported their first loss in a decade last quarter.
