Phone company to cut thousands of jobs following Alcatel deal

Telecom network equipment maker Nokia is planning to cut thousands of jobs globally, including 1,400 in Germany and 1,300 in its native Finland, as part of a cost-cutting programme following the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year.

In France, Nokia said on Wednesday it will cut only 400 jobs, but will also create 500 posts in research and development, in line with a promise to the French government last year when it was negotiating the Alcatel deal.

Nokia declined to give a total figure for global job cuts. The company employs about 6,850 people in Finland, 4,800 in Germany, 4,200 in France and around 104,000 around the world.

"This (1,300) is a terrible figure, we have rather difficult employment situation in the sector to begin with," Pertti Porokari, chairman of the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland, said. "Seems that Finnish workers have lost this match (against the French)."

Nokia took control of Franco-American Alcatel-Lucent in January following its 15.6 billion euro ($17.7 billion) all-share offer, intended to help it compete with Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei in a market where limited growth and tough competition are pressuring prices.

Nokia is seeking 900 million euros billion) of operating cost synergies from the Alcatel deal by 2018. ($1 = 0.8811 euros)