Nokia to lay off 450 workers, streamline operations to further cut costs

Nokia Corp. said it will lay off up to 450 workers worldwide & streamline operations, in a move to further cut costs. The world's largest handset maker said it also will begin cooperation with third parties and outsource some mobile services. The redundancies will be in several sectors, including services that provide mobile games, the internal IT & other units in the corporate development office. "The planned changes are aimed at improving & simplifying the user experience of Nokia services, increasing opps for 3rd party developers & other partners to create compelling services," said Niklas Savander, from Nokia services sector. The Finland-based company said the measures were part of previously announced plans "to adjust its business operations & cost base in accordance with market demand & safeguard future competitiveness." Nokia stock closed down 2.6% at euro10.18 ($13.23) on the Helsinki Exchange. Nokia said most job cuts -- up to 350 -- will be abroad. Some 100 will be in Finland where it employs 13,000 people. In April, Nokia announced plans to lay off 1,700 people worldwide, mainly in devices & markets units, the corporate development office & global support functions. It said it also will close a research center in Finland with 320 job cuts & temporarily lay off 2,500 workers. It aims to slash costs at its handset unit by euro700 million ($920M) annually, & on Tuesday said it will continue "to seek savings in operational expenses, looking at all areas and activities across the company." Earlier in April, it reported 1st-Q net profit plummeted 90% to euro576M & sales fell 27% as the world economic downturn continued to hit the mobile industry. Nokia employs 124,000 people worldwide.