14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft announced this week that it’s firing 18,000 people after the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services unit, including 12,000 employees of the mobile phone maker.
Approximately 1,100 of these employees are living in Finland and working at Nokia facilities, which obviously led to a quick reaction from local authorities who expressed their disappointment towards Microsoft’s decision to lay off so many people.
"It can be said that we have been betrayed," Finland's finance minister Antti Rinne told the Finnish business daily Kauppalehti according to a report by ZDNet. "At the time of the Nokia deal Microsoft announced it is committed to Finnish expertise. Now it seems this commitment isn't fully met."
Oulu is one of the most affected regions, as Microsoft is closing a research and development unit there that was employing 500 people. The city has a total population of 200,000, so the mayor says that they could be re-employed very fast if everything goes well.
"Of course it is a disappointment that this kind of unit will be shut down. It is a major blow," said the city's mayor Matti Pennanen. "But we have to look forward and believe that we can get through this as well. We have great expertise in Oulu and now we have to find out together with Microsoft and others how this talented group of people can be re-employed."
Stephen Elop, former Nokia boss and now in charge of Microsoft’s Devices group, detailed some of the changes that Redmond is planning to make to its smartphone business following the Nokia deal:
“Our phone engineering efforts are expected to be concentrated in Salo, Finland (for future, high-end Lumia products) and Tampere, Finland (for more affordable devices). We plan to develop the supporting technologies in both locations. We plan to ramp down engineering work in Oulu. While we plan to reduce the engineering in Beijing and San Diego, both sites will continue to have supporting roles, including affordable devices in Beijing and supporting specific US requirements in San Diego. Espoo and Lund are planned to continue to be focused on application software development.”
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella says that all those getting fired would receive a notification in the next six months, but according to information coming from sources within the company, many employees have already found out that they are being laid off.
As a result, hundreds of LinkedIn profiles have been updated with new information and photos overnight, while some companies tried to make the most of this by releasing job advertisements specifically aimed at Microsoft employees.