Nokia Siemens Trims Work Force, Suppliers

Nokia Siemens Networks is eliminating 17,000 jobs worldwide by 2013, approximately 23 percent of its work force, with a goal to cut costs by Euro $1 billion by the end of 2013, compared to the end of 2011. The Finnish-German joint venture also plans to significantly reduce suppliers.

Nokia Siemens Networks puts mobile broadband and services at the heart of its strategy moving forward.

“We believe that the future of our industry is in mobile broadband and services,” said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks, in a statement. “At the same time, we need to take the necessary steps to maintain long-term competitiveness and improve profitability in a challenging telecommunications market. Despite the need to restructure parts of our company, our commitment to research and development remains unchanged, with investment in mobile broadband expected to increase over the coming years.”

Nokia’s personnel reductions will be driven by aligning the company’s workforce with its new strategy as well as through a range of productivity and efficiency measures, including: elimination of the company’s matrix organizational structure; site consolidation; transfer of activities to global delivery centers; consolidation of certain central functions; cost synergies from the integration of Motorola’s wireless assets; efficiencies in service operations; and company-wide process simplification.

The total global workforce of Nokia Siemens Networks on November 1 was approximately 74,000.