October 21, 2010 06:12 ET
Nokia takes steps to accelerate company transformation and increase effectiveness
ESPOO, FINLAND--(Marketwire - October 21, 2010) - Symbian Smartphones and Services streamlined
for greater simplicity for consumers and developers
Espoo, Finland - Nokia has today communicated to its employees the
company's plans to accelerate its transformation and increase
effectiveness. The plans include simplifying operations in product creation
in Nokia's Symbian Smartphones organization, as well as Nokia's Services
organization and certain corporate functions. The plans are expected to
result in a reduction of up to 1800 employees globally.
In Symbian Smartphones, Nokia plans to renew product creation to increase
responsiveness to consumer demands and reduce time to market. This includes
expanding the use of common tools for application development, streamlining
software development, simplifying and consolidating operations and placing
greater focus on adding value to consumers. The changes target increased
competitiveness and support building an attractive and sustainable platform
for application developers.
Nokia is also making changes in its Services organization. Instead of
distinct end-to-end service lines, the Services organization will be
focused on delivering an integrated Ovi experience across our full range of
devices. In addition to simplifying its ways of working, the aim is to
provide more compelling Ovi services to consumers.
In line with these changes, Nokia is also streamlining certain corporate
functions and corporate research activities.
"Changes impacting personnel are always difficult. We are committed to
managing these changes in a way that reflect Nokia's values, and will
support affected employees with alternative solutions, such as helping them
find new positions
within the company," says Juha Äkräs, Executive Vice President,
Human Resources.
"The announcement today is the result of careful evaluation and planning;
the plans have now been reviewed and endorsed by the new management. The
aim is to accelerate the company's transformation towards a leading mobile
solutions provider, and to do this we are simplifying and integrating
operations within our product creation and corporate functions."
Altogether, the planned changes are expected to result in a reduction of up
to 1 800 employees globally, as activities are planned to be discontinued
and integrated. Nokia will begin applicable consultations with employee
representatives about these plans.
About Nokia
At Nokia, we are committed to connecting people. We combine advanced
technology with personalized services that enable people to stay close to
what matters to them. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people connect to
one another with a Nokia device - from mobile phones to advanced
smartphones and high-performance mobile computers. Today, Nokia is
integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi (www.ovi.com),
including music, maps, apps, email and more. Nokia's NAVTEQ is a leader in
comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens
Networks provides equipment, services and solutions for communications
networks globally.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historical
facts
are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those
regarding:
A) the timing of the deliveries of our products and services and their
combinations; B) our ability to develop, implement and commercialize new
technologies, products and services and their combinations; C) expectations
regarding market developments and structural changes; D) expectations and
targets regarding our industry volumes, market share, prices, net sales and
margins of products and services and their combinations; E) expectations
and
targets regarding our operational priorities and results of operations; F)
the
outcome of pending and threatened litigation; G) expectations regarding the
successful completion of acquisitions or restructurings on a timely basis
and
our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in
connection
with any such acquisition or restructuring; and H) statements preceded by
"believe," "expect," "anticipate," "foresee," "target," "estimate,"
"designed,"
"plans," "will" or similar expressions. These statements are based on
management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information
currently
available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual
results
may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors
that
could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) the
competitiveness and quality of our portfolio of products and services and
their
combinations; 2) our ability to timely and successfully develop or
otherwise
acquire the appropriate technologies and commercialize them as new advanced
products and services and their combinations, including our ability to
attract
application developers and content providers to develop applications and
provide
content for use in our devices; 3) our ability to effectively, timely and
profitably adapt our business and operations to the requirements of the
converged mobile device market and the services market; 4) the intensity of
competition in the various markets where we do business and our ability to
maintain or improve our market position or respond successfully to changes
in
the competitive environment; 5) the occurrence of any actual or even
alleged
defects or other quality, safety or security issues in our products and
services
and their combinations; 6) the development of the mobile and fixed
communications industry and general economic conditions globally and
regionally;
7) our ability to successfully manage costs; 8) exchange rate fluctuations,
including, in particular, fluctuations between the euro, which is our
reporting
currency, and the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan, as well
as
certain other currencies; 9) the success, financial condition and
performance of
our suppliers, collaboration partners and customers; 10) our ability to
source
sufficient amounts of fully functional components, sub-assemblies,
software,
applications and content without interruption and at acceptable prices and
quality; 11) our success in collaboration arrangements with third parties
relating to the development of new technologies, products and services,
including applications and content; 12) our ability to manage efficiently
our
manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety,
security
and timely delivery of our products and services and their combinations;
13) our
ability to manage our inventory and timely adapt our supply to meet
changing
demands for our products; 14) our ability to protect the complex
technologies,
which we or others develop or that we license, from claims that we have
infringed third parties' intellectual property rights, as well as our
unrestricted use on commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies
in our
products and services and their combinations; 15) our ability to protect
numerous Nokia, NAVTEQ and Nokia Siemens Networks patented, standardized or
proprietary technologies from third-party infringement or actions to
invalidate
the intellectual property rights of these technologies; 16) the impact of
changes in government policies, trade policies, laws or regulations and
economic
or political turmoil in countries where our assets are located and we do
business; 17) any disruption to information technology systems and networks
that
our operations rely on; 18) our ability to retain, motivate, develop and
recruit
appropriately skilled employees; 19) unfavorable outcome of litigations;
20)
allegations of possible health risks from electromagnetic fields generated
by
base stations and mobile devices and lawsuits related to them, regardless
of
merit; 21) our ability to achieve targeted costs reductions and increase
profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks and to effectively and timely
execute
related restructuring measures; 22) developments under large, multi-year
contracts or in relation to major customers in the networks infrastructure
and
related services business; 23) the management of our customer financing
exposure, particularly in the networks infrastructure and related services
business; 24) whether ongoing or any additional governmental investigations
into
alleged violations of law by some former employees of Siemens AG
("Siemens") may
involve and affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by
Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks; 25) any impairment of Nokia Siemens
Networks
customer relationships resulting from ongoing or any additional
governmental
investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations transferred
to
Nokia Siemens Networks; as well as the risk factors specified on pages 11-
32 of
Nokia's annual report Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2009 under
Item
3D. "Risk Factors." Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying
assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results
to
differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Nokia does
not
undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise,
except to the extent legally required.
[HUG#1453897]
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Source: NOKIA via Thomson Reuters ONE