Still 3,000 jobs to go at NSN; Nortel follows suit

Monster vendor Nokia Siemens Networks has confirmed plans to slash around 3,000 more jobs worldwide as part of its post merger cost cutting exercise.

On Tuesday, the equipment manufacturer reiterated its 2006 announcement to reduce global headcount by 10-15 per cent or 9,000 employees. To date the Finnish-German firm has cut about 6,000 workers, with a further 3,000 still expecting pink slips.

A further 750 reductions are now expected in Finland, and 500 more will go in Germany as the company closes its Hofmannstrasse site at the end of October next year. NSN has also announced that its manufacturing site in Durach, Germany is to be purchased in a management buy out, which will result in the further transfer of around 500 employees.

The good news is, this latest swathe of cuts should bring “the vast majority” of merger related headcount reductions in Germany and Finland to a close.

However, there is bad news for NSN employees in Egypt, where around 50 jobs are to be cut, and around 20 employees in the US will lose their jobs as a result of the ramp down of a small site over the course of 2009.

The figures released this week only account for around 1,820 jobs, meaning over 1,000 more are still to come. NSN only said, “Other countries are expected to see limited reductions and most of those changes will happen between now and early 2009.”

“With the successful completion of these plans, we will have the vast majority of the synergy-related headcount reductions completed and we can then start to put this chapter of our history behind us and focus on creating a world-class company,” said Simon Beresford-Wylie, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks.

Across the pond, Canadian kit vendor Nortel was making similar noises, as it announced plans to cut 1,300 positions as part of its strategy to, “Flatten the corporate structure; eliminate or consolidate executive and management positions company-wide.”

The troubled company reported a 14 per cent year on year decline in third quarter revenue to $2.3bn, and a whopping net loss of $3.4bn, compared to a profit of $27m last year. The hits are largely attributed to an allowance against deferred tax assets of $2bn and a write off of goodwill of $1bn.