Nokia will cut 500 jobs in the company’s Naperville, Illinois, office by year-end as part of the company's restructuring plan. According to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business, citing unidentified sources, about 250 people were notified earlier this month that their jobs were eliminated and another 250 staff members will be cut by the end of the year.
A Nokia spokesman confirmed that the company was reducing headcount at that location but didn’t say how many jobs would be impacted. “Following the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, Nokia announced a global synergy and transformation program that runs until the end of 2018,” the spokesman said. He added that as part of that restructuring plan the company has reduced headcount in Illinois.
During the company’s second quarter earnings report earlier this year, Nokia said it was trying to save $1.4 billion in costs through this restructuring plan, some of which were still associated with its 2016 acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent.
These latest layoffs come on top of the 353 jobs that Nokia cut in late March. Those jobs were in the company’s networking and technology units based in Finland.
The Nokia offices in Naperville, Illinois, were originally home to the wireless equipment business of Motorola Solutions, which was sold to the Nokia-Siemens joint venture in 2011. Nokia then bought the Siemens portion of the business and became the sole owner. When Nokia purchased Alcatel-Lucent in 2016 some of its employees became part those offices.
But Nokia’s news isn’t all gloom and doom. The company has been scoring a number of 5G infrastructure deals with U.S. operators including AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. It also announced a $3.5 billion deal with T-Mobile for that company’s 5G gear.
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