Nokia to transfer 2,800 staff to Accenture 22 June 2011, By MATTI HUUHTANEN , Associated Press (AP) -- Nokia Corp. said Wednesday it has It said the plan includes to develop platform services completed a deal to outsource Symbian software and local commerce services for device development to Accenture, including the transfer of manufacturers, application developers, Internet 2,800 workers to the global management- services providers, merchants and advertisers. consulting firm. CEO Stephen Elop said that focusing on location The announcement came two months after Nokia and commerce was "a natural next step" for the disclosed the plan as part of its aim to cut costs by company. $1.5 billion (euro1 billion) by 2013, including 7,000 global layoffs, and catch up with top rivals in the "We will provide next generation social-location tough smartphone market. applications and commerce to differentiate Nokia," Elop said. "We also aim to extend our content and The Finland-based company faces strong services offerings to all consumers by making them competition from Research in Motion's Blackberry, available to partners and customers on a wide Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, as it variety of devices and operating systems." continues to see market share fall. Last month it issued a big profits warning. Since 1998, Nokia has been the biggest seller of cell phones, but in the first quarter of this year Nokia's share price has plunged in recent months Apple overtook it as the world's top handset vendor and recently has been trading at multiyear lows of in revenue terms - reaching sales of $11.9 billion on around euro4.20 ($6.05). Its stock closed at shipments of 18.6 million devices against Nokia's euro4.21 ($6.06) in Helsinki - unchanged from revenue of $9.4 billion on shipments of 108.5 Tuesday's closing rate. million units. Nokia said Accenture PLC will provide it with Although Nokia sold 432 million devices in 2010 - software services through 2016 with the personnel more than its three closest rivals combined - its transfer expected in October when the deal closes. market share continues to fall. At 29 percent in the Half of the workers are based in Finland with first quarter, it's at its lowest level since the late another 1,400 in China, India, Britain and the 1990s. United States. Even more damaging has been Nokia's inability to Besides the personnel transfer, Nokia has said it meet modern challenges of the smartphone market, plans to lay off 4,000 people by the end of 2012, the lucrative sector in the handset industry, where mostly in Denmark, Finland and Britain. Nokia used to be the leading innovator. Although it sold 24 million smartphones in the first quarter, 13 In another move to improve services, Nokia percent more than in 2010, its share in the sector announced Wednesday that it will integrate its plunged to 24 percent from 39 percent a year NAVTEQ mapping unit with social location services earlier. operations to develop "a new class of integrated social location products and services for On Tuesday, Nokia unveiled the N9 smartphone, consumers." based on its new MeeGo platform, but the handset received mixed reviews as markets are waiting to The struggling company, which claims more than see the company's first Windows Phone. CEO 1.3 billion mobile customers, said it wants to Stephen Elop has said the Windows-based phone provide new products and support for bringing the will be launched later this year with bulk sales Internet "to the next billion." expected in 2012. 1 / 2 In February, Nokia announced a major strategy shift when it partnered with Microsoft Corp., saying it will gradually replace Symbian and MeeGo platforms with the Window-based software that will become the main software used in Nokia cell phones. ©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. APA citation: Nokia to transfer 2,800 staff to Accenture (2011, June 22) retrieved 3 October 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2011-06-nokia-staff-accenture.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. 2 / 2 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org).