Nokia today announced improved financial results for Q2 2013, but the Finnish company still posted a loss of $151 million for the period as revenue shrunk, and it looks set to pay for that with job cuts.
Hidden deep within the company’s 44-page earnings report is word that it will cut up to 440 jobs within its mobile division worldwide. The company implies that some employees will be reasssigned to new positions, so the exact number of layoffs isn’t clear, but nonetheless the changes are a further indicator of the company’s struggle to compete against Apple and Samsung.
Here’s the excerpt from the report — emphasis ours:
Mobile Phones Planning Actions
Nokia continuously works to improve the efficiency of its operations and its long-term competitive investments. In order to respond to industry dynamics, Nokia’s Mobile Phones business unit is planning to focus its product offering with the aim of improving product competitiveness and delivering more innovation.
The planned restructure is estimated to impact a maximum of 440 positions globally, while also creating a number of new positions and offering possibilities for redeployment.
Nokia sold a record 7.4 million Lumia smartphones during the period and, while the loss of $151 million was an improvement on the $196 million deficit it posted in Q1 2013, revenue from device sales fell.
Net sales of smartphones during Q2 2013 came in at €1.2 billion ($1.57 billion) down 24 percent per year and 6 percent quarter-on-quarter, while sales of feature phones dropped 12 percent quarter-on-quarter and 39 percent year-on-year to €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion).
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Nokia says that it had an average of 92,874 staff across all business units during Q2 2013, its ‘Devices & Services and Corporate Common’ division accounts for 31,400. Both numbers are down on the previous quarter and year — Nokia says the latter team is 12,200 staff lighter than Q2 2012 — but unfortunately it looks like there are more redundancies coming.
Finnish paper Taloussanomat says 160 staff from Nokia’s home market Finland will be fired, but no details have been confirmed as yet.
We’ve reached out to Nokia as we seek further clarification around its structuring plans.
Update: A Nokia spokesperson tells us that the company has begun “planning” it’s layoffs from today, which means it is talking to the employees affected and is still to decide how it will progress. We’re told that the exact ramifications of the restructuring are currently unknown, but “the total number of job losses will be much smaller than 440.”
There’s no word on exactly how many staff might be laid off, for now, but we’ll update this post with any further information as we hear of it.
Headline image via Thinkstock — hat tip @whatthebit
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