Microsoft has decided to shutter Nokia’s plant in Salo, Finland and has also revealed that it will be axing 2,300 jobs from the country.
Decisions, which Microsoft claims are part of a broader broader restructuring, were taken after negotiations with staff ended and this will lead to transfer of operations from the Salo plant to other locations in Espoo and Tampere, Finland.
Microsoft also revealed in its stock exchange press release that it will make a final decision about job cuts at its Espoo and Tampere units afterwards, and will be focusing on concentrating its product management and product development teams for its phone business at those two sites.
According to Redmond, employees who are stationed at Espoo will continue to work on high-end phones, applications development and design, while those in Tampere will be working on mid-range smartphones and the development of key technologies
The latest job cuts, which were initially announced in July, are part of Redmond’s plants to cut 7,800 jobs globally, most of which will be from the phone hardware business that it acquired from Nokia last year.
Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila has called Microsoft’s decision “a big blow”. Sipila visited Salo to hear from local residents on what can the government do to help the town – one of the most affected places in the whole country mainly because of thousands of job cuts that were announced by Nokia even prior to the Microsoft deal.
