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Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs
- glimshe 3y agoI don't want to be insensitive, but I'm surprised Nokia still exists.
- sofixa 3y agoThey're literally a top 3 telecommunications vendor (stuff like 5G towers' equipment, so quiet massive and extremely crucial.
- ecmascript 3y agoToday they have 86000 employees so the reduction is about 16% of the total work force. It's not nothing but I wonder where and what types of work gets cut first. Usually it's not people producing stuff like programmers but roles that companies in times of trouble realize they can be without.
- Aherontas 3y agoI can assure you personally that there are all kinds of sectors impacted (also R&D). This is happening also to get rid of people with large salaries and upgrade cheap sites.
- ogjojo 3y agoThat and also refocus efforts on revenue producing products/departementets. I just hope Nokia has learned from their mistakes and don’t cut too much from their R&D.
- expertentipp 3y ago> just hope Nokia has learned from their mistakes and don’t cut too much from their R&D. If the executive board will receive bonuses from doing exactly the opposite, they will decide doing the opposite.
- ekianjo 3y agoThere is R&D and R&D... If your internal R&D is amazingly useless and produces nothing marketable you are better off shrinking it
- nsteel 3y agoThere's not much value in yet another reseller of Broadcom chipsets, they need to keep investing in their own product lines. However, I am pretty biased.
- thriftwy 3y agoI had no idea what they are up to these days. I own a button dumb phone by Nokia, it's fine but would not explain even 1% of that employment number. PA says they're making telecom equipment now. Fun thing it also mentions Ericsson, which used to make phones under its brand, then Sony-Ericsson smartphones (not unlike Microsoft-Nokia) and then had to drop it completely.
- tgaj 3y agoThis button dumb phone is not even produced by Nokia - it only has Nokia logo. Nokia is one of major players on both 5G and PON markets - and that would be more than enough if not the recession.
- fch42 3y agoThe Nokia of today has little (left) in common with "the Nokia of lore". Just as that had little in common with the company that used to supply the Finnish Army with Rubber boots. The Nokia-of-phones sold itself to Microsoft and was subsequently wound down. While the brand name for phones still exists, it's no longer held by the corporation now called "Nokia". That came to be, if you like to call it that, from a "reverse merger". The telecommunications equipment branch (which makes base stations and wireless connectivity hardware) was partially outsourced and recombined with that of Siemens, and later I think parts of Ericsson, to form "Nokia-Siemens Networks". Which after "old-new" Nokia's demise took (bought ?) the name back and became ... just "Nokia" again. So yes there are "Nokia phones" again/still, but they're no longer made by Nokia. While Nokia-of-today is still doing what they (if under slightly different names) have done for 25y+ - make, install, maintain telecommunications infrastructure.
- dagw 3y agoWhile the brand name for phones still exists, it's no longer held by the corporation now called "Nokia" The corporation now called "Nokia" still owns the brand name "Nokia" for phones, but is licensing it to HMD Global, a Finnish mobile phone company started by ex-Nokia people, but largely financed by Foxconn.
- contrarian1234 3y agoIs this the normal course of things? "We are now beginning the process of consultation on initial reductions." I'm not in the know.. but it comes off as if they have no idea what they're doing. You'd think you'd decide who you are gunna lay off before announcing it..? And they will be laying people off for two years straight? Seems like it'd just tank the moral of the whole place. I thought companies generally rip the bandaid off and do it all very quickly - and have a concrete plan before an announcement
- NoboruWataya 3y agoIn the EU you are generally required to inform and consult with staff in advance of large-scale redundancies. https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/human-resources/employment-contracts/redundancies/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/human-resources/employ...
- alibarber 3y agoIn Finland there is a mandated period of 'consultation' - usually at least 2 weeks long, between company and employees (or their representatives) when such things happen. I don't know if the actual term in Finnish is supposed to sound as euphemistic as the English one - but at this point it's pretty much decided.
- m00dy 3y agoIs Nokia still a Finnish company ?
- trollied 3y agoCompletely forgot that they now own Bell Labs. I wonder what Nokia have as a core revenue stream these days? They really dropped the ball when the iPhone & Android came to market (and to a lesser extent, the Blackberry). Guess they're still making a killing on telco hardware/software/infrastructure.
- swarnie 3y agoFrom looking in to the company a lot last year i think its mostly 5g and national infrastructure. Huawei getting black bagged by the US helped a bit.
- helsinkiandrew 3y agoAlthough they don't make mobile phones (themselves) now, they're deeply involved in everything to do with mobile/wireless hardware and services that the phones connect to. As well as their own products probably just about every other phone manufacturer also pays to use their IP - I think Apple still pay Nokia $8 for every iPhone sold. https://nokiamob.net/2023/07/01/apple-inc-renews-patent-licencing-agreement-with-nokia/ https://nokiamob.net/2023/07/01/apple-inc-renews-patent-lice... > Nokia’s patent portfolio is built on more than €140 billion invested in R&D since 2000. It is composed of around 20,000 patent families, including over 5,500 patent families declared essential to 5G.
- expertentipp 3y agoProbably means that folks in Finnish, German, and US offices are out, and in Romanian and Polish offices will receive no rises of their already meager salaries.
- zerr 3y agoRight. It doesn't make sense to lay off a dev in Romania, who's salary is less than a janitor's one in the US office.
- quickthrower2 3y agoCorollary: levels.fyi style dev salaries in the US make no sense
- expertentipp 3y agoAsking in Europe anything higher than 60% of what levels.fyi claims for any publicly traded company guarantees not receiving an offer. Funny because our public services and healthcare are the same dysfunctional as in US, only in different ways.
- sofixa 3y ago> Funny because our public services and healthcare are the same dysfunctional as in US, only in different ways. The same, or different? There's various levels of dysfunction depending on the country, but outcomes are better and there is zero risk of life crippling debt. Anyone not a multi-millionaire who could afford the best private care would take that deal any day of the week.
- expertentipp 3y agoWaiting times in months in context of cancer, pregnancy, and other critical health issues. Distributing the public services through nepotist barter, even basic services like a stupid consultation. Doesn't matter if one dies with or without some debt on top of it.
- manxman 3y agoNokia’s been a zombie corporation for a long time. This isn’t news… this was a scheduled calendar event from at least as far back as 2007.
- trustingtrust 3y agoA lot of 5G deployments shifted to Nokia after Huawei ban and Nokia also dominates a lot of GPON FTTH deployments for end to end solutions.
- tgaj 3y agoNot suprisingly, most people commenting in this thread have no idea about Nokia and what they are doing. They are really big and somehow succesful company, but no one can escape recession.
- csomar 3y agoDepends on your definition of big: https://g.co/kgs/8Zh7NM https://g.co/kgs/8Zh7NM
- trustingtrust 3y agoAgreed. I think just like everyone in this world, they hired aggressively when money and contracts were there and firing now that it's slowed down. Majority of their networking has been from Alcatel Lucent over which they built their own products but I feel good management can take them to the top. They don't make groundbreaking networking products but they do offer solutions people are willing to buy which telecom companies in North America would love to invest in if done right. It's sad they couldn't capitalise on Huawei ban that much.
- kioleanu 3y agoMmm let me guess. McKinsey came to town?
- quickthrower2 3y agoDid they hire 20000 contractors at crazy rates?
- kioleanu 3y agoNo, they’re famous for pushing for cutting costs from unnecessary resources, like good employees most of the times they’re hired. One example from my anecdotes is when they did consulting work for a telecom in my home country and pushed for firing half the technicians who were working in pairs. One of the reasons they were working in pairs was safety, like one holding the ladder and they used this as an argument and said they can just be replaced by a safer ladder. Said and done. After the fourth accident the telecom outsourced the jobs to an external company that only sent… two people teams
- expertentipp 3y ago> One of the reasons they were working in pairs was safety, like one holding the ladder and they used this as an argument and said they can just be replaced by a safer ladder. Said and done. One consultant must had an orgasmic enlightenment while creating that powerpoint slide. Wonder what they are up to now.
- RecycledEle 3y agoA year before the first iPhone was released, I told Nokia they needed to take their N700 Internet Tablet, add voice calling and text messaging, and offer it in many screen sizes like 3", 4", 5", 6", and 7". If they had followed my advice instead of laughing at me they would still be the largest cell phone maker on planet Earth.
- albertgoeswoof 3y agoIt had a resistive touch screen and stylus, so it was never going to succeed.
- basch 3y agoPeople really underestimate the paradigmic leap capacitive touch and momentum scrolling were. iOS didnt mature till probably the 4th phone, but it FELT different immediately.
- pavlov 3y agoI had an N700 too. Nokia would be in exactly the same place today if their iPhone competitor had been that platform augmented by 3G phone capabilities. It was a finicky Linux GUI on a resistive screen, conceptually closer to Windows Mobile and Symbian touchscreen devices (like the SonyEricsson phones) than any modern platforms. Android would have still beaten Nokia to a usable iPhone clone/competitor.
- fsloth 3y agoN700 was underwhelming. N950 was a complete badass in all the ways it was not and in a bette world we would have a vibrant ecosystem on N950 successors. Sadly is was not to be.
- upupupandaway 3y agoThe OS lives on: https://sailfishos.org/ https://sailfishos.org/
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- cinntaile 3y agoI can't be the only one that's surprised that Nokia still has 86000 employees. It makes me wonder what they all do.
- dagw 3y agoMake, install and service telecoms infrastructure equipment and related services.
- amelius 3y agoBusiness-to-business services.
- tgaj 3y ago4G/5G and PON(technology used for providing "Fiber To The Home") - these are really big markets as you can imagine. But everybody is cutting investments right now in fear of recession.
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y agoThereby..
- lifeinthevoid 3y agoI'm so tired of seeing these comments where people assume they can accurately assess how many employees companies are supposed to have ...
- secondcoming 3y agoWhen I was looking for a 5G router Nokia's FastMile product came up, but when looking for pricing info it had none. Not even any info on where you can get one (unlocked, not from a Mobile Network) So I bought a Huawei one from Amazon.
- tgaj 3y agoI suppose Nokia is more operator-oriented than individual customers. It takes additional resources to maintain helpdesk and support - the operators are doing this for them.
- upupupandaway 3y agoOff-topic but a series about the fall of Nokia aired in Finnish TV recently: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14956742/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14956742/
- thelastgallon 3y agoEarlier this year, Nokia changes iconic logo to signal strategy shift: https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2023/02/26/nokia-changes-iconic-logo-to-signal-strategy-shift https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2023/02/26/nokia-c...
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoObligatory whenever a company changes logo for a "strategy shift": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KbRA2RjhgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KbRA2RjhgQ
- shakkhar 3y agoHow about company that changes it's name for strategy shift?
- pimlottc 3y agoPrevious logo(s) for those who don’t remember offhand: https://www.purppledesigns.com/history-and-evolution-of-logo-design-of-famous-companies-nokia/ https://www.purppledesigns.com/history-and-evolution-of-logo...
- ulfw 3y agoShould have stuck with the fish head one
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- strdanger334 3y agoAnd that was a questionable decision at best. It just seems the company is trying too many things too fast and nothing is sticking.
- nikau 3y agoI cant wait for the new range of Aocia phones
- nologic01 3y agoIs this like the delayed echo of the US tech redundancy wave (Europe always operates with a phase difference - maybe its the time it takes for management consultancy powerpoints to cross the Atlantic) or is it something more specific?
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y agoNot really, Nokia isn't really at the start startup-y end of the tech field like that. It's way more "esoteric backbone hardware for the world" these days. Closer to General Electric than Google. My wild ass guess from living here is this is somehow coming from the larger Finnish economy; Finland is only now starting to really feel the pinch of inflation after the combination of COVID-19, which it weathered fine for a time, combined with the war in Ukraine, which is affecting food prices all over Europe and also (understandably) closed off trade relations temporarily with Russia.
- thisisit 3y agoDiscussed here as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37942403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37942403
- thisisit 3y agoFor people who are unaware Nokia is working on Mobile Networks (5G Base stations etc), Network Infrastructure, Cloud Networking etc. As for this move, from what I have heard from my friends working there it has been strange ongoings in Nokia. Earlier in the year people were being let go. There were hiring and travel freeze. All the while there was a costly rebranding exercise with new logo goodies being distributed to the employees. It made absolutely no sense to celebrate a rebrand while firing people. As the article notes, words like cloud computing and AI are being thrown around. But many feel that the management has proven itself to be rather short sighted because there has been constant shifts in strategy - changing the business structure nearly every year to the rebranding just 2 Quarters ago.