Microsoft to slash up to 1850 mobile jobs

Microsoft has announced a new round of job cuts for its struggling smartphone hardware business, following the agreement to sell its feature phone business to a company reviving the Nokia mobile brand.

Microsoft announced it will cut up to 1850 jobs as part of a streamlining of the smartphone hardware business.

The company has set aside around US$950 million ($1.32 billion) in impairment and restructuring charges, with around $200 million of this reserved for severance payments.

The job cuts will involve the reduction of up to 1350 jobs at Microsoft Mobile Oy in Finland, a business inherited from Nokia after Microsoft paid US$7.2 billion to acquire the once-dominant mobile vendor in 2014.

Up to a further 500 additional jobs will be reduced globally, but employees working for separate Finland-based sales facility Microsoft Oy will be spared from the planned cutbacks.

“We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella commented.

“We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms.”

The move comes days after Microsoft agreed to sell the feature phone business it inherited from Nokia, for US$350 million, to HMD Global — a company established by former Nokia executives — and FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of manufacturing giant Foxconn.

The sale formed part of a wider plan by HMD Global and Nokia to bring back the Nokia mobile phone brand. Under the plan, HMD will license the Nokia name and use it to produce a line of mobile phones and tablets.

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