Nokia said Thursday that it is planning to cut up to 14,000 jobs worldwide, or 16 per cent of its workforce, as part of a push to reduce costs following a plunge in third-quarter sales and profit.
The Finnish company, one of the world’s main suppliers of high-speed 5G wireless networks, said it’s trying “to navigate the current market uncertainty” as higher interest rates take a toll.
The company said it is aiming to slash 800 million euros ($843 billion) to 1.2 billion euros in costs by the end of 2026. That is expected to lead to a reduction from 86,000 employees to between 72,000 and 77,000 over that period.
Nokia’s third-quarter sales plummeted 20 per cent, to 4.98 billion euros from 6.24 billion a year ago.
Comparable net profit plunged to 299 million euros in the July-to-September quarter from 551 million a year earlier.
The company’s biggest unit by revenue — the mobile networks business — declined 24 per cent to 2.16 billion euros, driven mainly by weakness in the North American market. Operating profit for the division fell 64 per cent.
“We continue to believe in the mid-to-long-term attractiveness of our markets,” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said in a statement. “Cloud computing and AI revolutions will not materialise without significant investments in networks that have vastly improved capabilities.”
The market weakness comes as telecom operators, Nokia’s main clients, put investments on hold because of higher interest rates and financial costs.
