Nokia Was Killed by Microsoft, We Need to Remember That Amid 14,000 More Layoffs

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 21, 2023

THE FINNISH giant is laying off another 14,000 people [1]. While Nokia's demise is not 100% the fault of Microsoft, the role played by Microsoft is very considerable and we must remember that.

The economy in general is not in a good state and companies are generally struggling [2]. Samsung's profits collapsed and almost turned into net losses, TSMC posts quarterly profit and revenue declines again, and many other Asian companies are in a tough place. The same is true for x86 giants from the US, even Qualcomm (so it's not just a x86 thing). Based on the latest published figures, hardware sales are down, including "smart" phones (we put references in our latest Daily Links). Europe depends on sales in Asia and America, so Nokia [3] is not finding its balance again. It cannot, for example, replace business lost in one continent with some contract in another continent. Some of the latest articles [4-7] mention Nokia's failures in relation to India, but nobody mentions what Microsoft did to Nokia a decade ago. Nokia never recovered from that. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. PM Orpo vows to support laid-off Nokia workers in Finland

   The networks company plans to lay off up to 14,000 of its workers globally, while a business publication reported around 450 of the job cuts will be in Finland.

2. Nokia is Laying off 14,000 Employees due to Challenging Environments

   In a pretty unexpected move, Nokia plans to eliminate up to 14,000 jobs—indicating what could be a larger trend of slowing momentum in the tech industry. The announcement from the Finnish telecom leader follows other significant layoffs from major tech companies, including X (formerly Twitter), Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, who’ve cumulatively cut over 50,000 positions this year.

3. Former phone giant Nokia saw a dramatic drop in profits and is now cutting up to 14,000 jobs in response

   Nokia dominated the world of phones in the early 2000s, when landlines and mobile “chocolate bar” and flip phones were found in almost every household and smartphones were nothing but a distant dream. The Finnish telecom company has since lost its spot among Samsung Galaxys, Apple iPhones, and other high-tech phones, and carved out a niche for itself in the network equipment and licensing space instead.

4. Nokia says it's going to cut up to 14,000 jobs

   Finland-based mobile company Nokia is planning to cut between 9,000 to 14,000 jobs amid a sales slump and reduced demand for 5G equipment, it said on Thursday. The higher end of these cuts is likely to impact around 16% of the company's current global workforce of 86,000.

5. 2023 Layoff Tracker: Nokia Slashes Up To 14,000 Jobs

   Finnish communications giant Nokia became the latest major tech company to drastically reduce its head count, announcing plans Thursday to cut up to 14,000 employees worldwide—amid a string of layoffs at U.S. manufacturing and tech companies as lingering recession fears persist (see Forbes’ layoff tracker from the first quarter here).

6. Nokia will lay off up to 14,000 workers thanks to slow 5G rollout

   Mobile networks sales fell 19% in the third quarter compared to a year ago due to the slowed pace of 5G rollout in India.

   Nokia had banked on the potential 5G deployment in India to help “offset” the faltered North America rollout after the network operators over-ordered gear in 2021 and 2022 to meet lockdown-era surge in internet traffic.

7. Nokia to erase up to 14,000 employees from payroll

   The intent is to hack chunks out of expenses, reducing them by €800 million ($844 million) to €1.2 billion ($1.27 billion) over a three-year period, with the aim of realizing an operating margin of 14 percent by 2026.