NOKIA ALCATEL-LUCENT
Finnish kit vendor Nokia is going to cut 1,233 jobs at its Alcatel-Lucent subsidiary in France as part of its continued search for profitability. The story was first reported by Reuters, which notes that a five-year commitment not to cut French jobs, which was a condition of the acquisition being approved, is about to expire. So this is presumably not a coincidence, but it’s not clear whether Nokia always intended to have a purge as soon as it was allowed, or if this move is a response to more immediate concerns. The report makes reference to market pressures on costs as a reason for the redundancies, which is ironically a somewhat redundant statement. Why else would a company get rid of a bunch of people? Again, they could be exceptional short-term pressures, or Nokia could have always considered those (largely R&D) positions redundant, but was forced to maintain them for five years aby the French government. We received the following statement from a Nokia spokesperson...
