14 Jun 2012

Nokia to axe another 10,000 jobs worldwide

Mobile phone giant Nokia reveals it is cutting another 10,000 staff from its worldwide workforce by the end of 2013, as it struggles to keep pace with rivals.

Nokia is struggling against rivals such as Apple

The cuts bring total planned job cuts at the Finnish group since Stephen Elop took over as chief executive in September 2010 to more than 40,000.

Nokia will also have to pay additional restructuring charges of about 1bn euros (£811m).

Nokia’s shares have slumped more than 70 per cent since February 2011.

“These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia’s long-term competitive strength,” Mr Elop said in a statement.

Last year, Nokia dropped its own Symbian smartphone operating software and switched to Microsoft’s Windows Phone system.

Nokia has struggled with the lucrative smartphone market in the face of rivals such as Apple.

Nokia sold a respectable one million Lumia 800 phones in the last quarter of 2011 – but Apple sold 1 million iPhone 4s models in one day after its release, and 35 million in the same three-month period.

In April, South Korean company Samsung knocked Nokia from its 14-year-reign at the top of the global mobile phone market.

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