Nokia Taps IT Outsourcing, Lays Off Employees
Nokia is tapping the IT outsourcing firm Accenture to streamline its operations, transferring thousands of its Symbian employees to that firm and laying off thousands more staff worldwide.
Nokia will transfer all of its Symbian software activities to Accenture along with 3,000 staff members from China, Finland, India, the UK and the US. 4,000 employees will be laid off by the end of 2012, with the bulk of cuts taking place in Denmark, Finland and the UK. According to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, the company has developed a new clarity around their path which requires reductions in their workforce. This news comes on the heels of the company formalizing its tie-in with Microsoft, which involves the adoption of the Windows Phone platform and the phasing-out over the next two years of the classic Symbian OS, as well as the abandonment of Nokia's next high-end platform MeeGo.