Thousands Of Nokia Employees Laid Off

Nokia's chief executive officer Stephen Elop promised changes when he came aboard last year, and changes have come.

The Espoo, Finland, company announced it will lay off 4,000 people by the end of next year, as the company realigns. An additional 3,000 will be forced to leave Nokia and transfer to consulting firm, Accenture. The Accenture move comes as the company moves away from its Symbian software and transitions into Windows Phone 7 OS for its phones.

Elop, the first non-Finn to head up the tech giant, came aboard last September from Microsoft. Within a few months he had formed a partnership with his former company, resulting in Nokia phones switching to the Windows 7 OS.That will cost many people their jobs.

At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions, Elop said in a statement. However, with this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce. This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programs for the talented people of Nokia.

The company said all employees affected by the reduction plans can stay on the Nokia payroll through the end of 2011. Most of the reductions will occur in Denmark, Finland and the U.K.

We are offering those who are losing their jobs a range of options, from individual re-employment support and re-training to making investments to promote innovation and working with a variety of partners to create new opportunities, Elop said.

In addition, Nokia announced it will consolidate the company's research and product development sites. Overall, it's planning on cutting €1 billion ($1.4 billion) by 2013 in operating expenses.