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Microsoft axes ‘dozens’ more from former Nokia phone biz

Satya Nadella continues Finning out the herd

Updated Nadella isn’t not done yet. Microsoft has made further redundancies in its the old Nokia phone division, as Finnish paper Helsingen Sanomat reports.

The number is “dozens” according to the paper, and these are additional redundancies over the layoffs already announced, hitting the Lumia marketing teams.

“The reduction is due to the fact that the company's phone business is in deep trouble and are forced to cut costs,” the paper explains.

The Finns have born the brunt of Nadella’s redundancies. Some 32,000 Nokia staff joined Microsoft in early 2014. 12,000 were made redundant and a further 7,800 in last June’s round of layoffs. Of those 7,800, 2,300 were in Finland. We’ve consistently received reports of small numbers of layoffs, so this sounds like another.

A Microsoft spokesman told us: "The job reductions were spread across more than one business area and country and reflect adaptations to business needs. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis and this can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others."

Most of the Lumias sold were in the value segment, and that kept Windows Phone alive… just about, as this is the fastest growing segment of all. But Microsoft failed to refresh its budget products in 2015. (The “hero” phone, the Lumia 640 is now ten months old). Nadella’s repositioning last summer gave no indication Microsoft was committed to value phones at all, merely promising updates for business users and flagships.

The poor critical reception to Microsoft’s Lumia 950 and 950 XL models – which focused on the unready state of Windows 10 Mobile – has not helped. IDC estimates, generously given the current strategy, that Microsoft will have 2.3 per cent of the mobile market by 2019.

About what it has now. ®

Updated

A Microsoft spokesperson has been in touch to add: “The job reductions were spread across more than one business area and country and reflect adaptations to business needs. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis and this can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others.”

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