Nokia Will Make Massive Layoffs As Part of Cost Saving Measures

April 6, 2016, 7:59 PM UTC
Photograph by Markku Ulander — AFP/Getty Images

As Nokia works to get its business back on track, it will make significant job cuts.

After announcing last October that it plans to restructure some of its units ahead of its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), Nokia (NOK) said on Wednesday that layoffs will be part of its strategy to cut €900 million in operating costs. The company will complete the layoffs by the end of 2018.

Nokia will cut 1,300 of its 6,850 employees in Finland, according to the Wall Street Journal, and 1,400 of its 4,800 German employees.

In France, the company will shed 400 employees, but will also hire 500 new ones in research and development units as part of its deal with the French government to keep 4,200 jobs in the country for two years after the Alcatel-Lucent deal. It’s not clear how many jobs total it will cut globally, however.

Nokia acquired the French company in a bid to remake itself into a telecom networking powerhouse, and Alcatel-Lucent could be its key to the U.S. market where the company previously failed to make a mark, as Fortune previously reported. Last year, Nokia also shed its mapping unit, HERE, and sold it to a group of German automakers after a small bidding war.

Nokia shareholders approved the €15.6 billion ($17.76 billion) acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in December, and the companies officially began working as one in January.

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