With Microsoft expected to make its biggest round of job cuts since 2009, a Finnish newspaper citing anonymous sources says the software company is preparing to lay off 1,000 employees in Finland.
Microsoft hired on approximately 25,000 employees in its acquisition of Nokia's handset division. Anonymous sources said Microsoft would likely make cuts to engineering, marketing and software testing teams to slim down its workforce.
Helsingin Sanomat, a Finnish daily newspaper, reported half of the jobs Microsoft intends to cut would come from Nokia's research and development division in Oulu, Finland, which is staffed with 500 people who develop software. Other Finnish locations would draw the other 500 layoffs.
Helsingin Sanomat said the other Nokia locations in Finland are in Espoo, which staffs 1,970 individuals; Salo, which has 1,100 employees; and Tampere, which has a workforce of 1,120 people. The newspaper's sources, however, couldn't clarify if one or all of the other locations would take on the other 500 layoffs.
While the job cuts in Finland haven't been officially confirmed, analysts, citing anonymous sources, expect Microsoft to top the 5,800 employees it laid off in 2009 by announcing terminations and restructuring moves before the company posts its quarterly earning report on July 22.
Reports of Microsoft's plan to trim its workforce down from more than 127,000 employees emerged roughly a week after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned making the software company more "nimble" in a companywide memo.
Nadella said he conferred with Microsoft's senior leadership team on the matter to help each of the company's divisions figure out how to simplify and speed up.
"We will increase the fluidity of information and ideas by taking actions to flatten the organization and develop leaner business processes. Culture change means we will do things differently," stated Nadella in the July 10 memo.
Though it's doubtful Finland's offices will be the only target in Microsoft's downsizing efforts, if the layoffs are indeed as widespread as they've been projected, the job cuts come at a difficult time for the country.
Caught up in a larger Euro-zone downturn, Finland has been suffering from a harsh recession. To make matters worse for any former Nokia employee laid off by Microsoft, the acquisition of the handset maker's core has also dismantled its Bridge program.
Previously, Nokia's Bridge program aided approximately 40,000 employees in developing their skills and launching startup businesses after leaving the company. The Bridge program was still active at Nokia's facilities in India, a location whose tax regulations have left it in limbo after Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia.
