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Finnish company HMD Global has launched a new HMD Fuse smartphone aimed specifically at children. According to the company, it is the world's first smartphone that prevents children from filming, broadcasting or viewing nude and sexually explicit content, even while streaming.
Nokia to cut 700 jobs in France and Germany
23. 11. 2025 Sunday / By: Robert Denes / Business / Exact time: BST / Print this page
N early 400 jobs will be cut at Nokia’s French facilities, following 300 cuts in Germany as part of cost-cutting plans. Job cuts have been a trend among telecoms operators and their suppliers for years. Unlike 3G and the metaverse, they haven’t gone out of fashion.
Last week, it was revealed that US telecoms giant Verizon is planning to cut another 15,000 jobs, equivalent to around 15% of its current workforce, and has already cut 32,000 since 2020. But few companies outside the US have seen such dramatic cuts as Nokia. In 2018, before the launch of 5G, the Finnish equipment maker employed more than 103,000 people worldwide. By the end of last year, the number had fallen to 76,000.
It is not over yet, and more cuts are set to be announced this week as executives gather in New York for the latest Capital Markets Day presentation. In Germany, where Nokia reportedly employs around 2,500 people, it is said that around 300 jobs will be cut at its Munich facility this year. These cuts were confirmed by a source close to the matter. But according to a German press report, the entire Munich facility, which employs 700 people, is set to close before 2030, meaning another 400 jobs will be cut over the next few years.
The latest development concerns neighboring France, where Nokia announced today that it will cut 427 jobs out of 2,380 at its Paris-Saclay and Lannion facilities by the end of next June, according to a separate source familiar with the matter. The cuts will affect staff across multiple functions and business groups, according to an internal memo obtained by Light Reading.
“As part of Nokia’s global cost-savings program announced in 2023, Nokia will potentially reduce its French workforce by the end of the second quarter of 2026, in accordance with the terms and conditions agreed with French unions and confirmed by French labor authorities,” Nokia said in a statement later. “The measure is planned to be a voluntary redundancy (Collective Conventional Break – CCB). Nokia is providing support to all affected employees during this transition. Nokia will meet with unions on Wednesday.”
In total, the upcoming 727 cuts in Germany and France would represent just 1% of Nokia’s global workforce at the end of last year. However, it has since acquired optical equipment maker Infinera, which had about 3,000 employees before the acquisition, according to its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the impact on local workforces in France and Germany is clearly much greater.
The latest job cuts appear to mark the end of a cost-cutting program announced about two years ago by former Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark. Under pressure from shareholders to boost profitability after a slump in 5G sales, Lundmark has promised to cut between 9,000 and 14,000 jobs by the end of 2026, leaving Nokia with between 72,000 and 77,000 employees. It was already at the high end of that range last year.
But shortly after Lundmark made his announcement, Nokia lost a major 5G contract with AT&T, which had previously been one of its largest mobile customers and accounted for an estimated 5% to 8% of its mobile network sales. The mobile network business group struggled to recover, reporting an operating loss of €64 million (US$74 million) in the first nine months on revenue of €5.3 billion (US$6.1 billion). Infinera integration costs and increased optical R&D spending also weighed on profitability. On a comparable basis, Nokia’s operating margin fell 2.2 percentage points year-on-year to 9% in the latest third quarter.
New CEO Justin Hotard has also moved away from Lundmark’s strategy of keeping business groups separate, with their own finance, HR, communications and marketing, and legal functions. He told reporters in July that these functions would be moved from the business groups to a single, more unified structure. At the time, Hotard said he had no plans for further cuts, but the reorganization clearly gives him the opportunity to reduce his workforce even further.
Via Link