Nokia to Move Symbian Software to Accenture, Reduce 4,000 Jobs
April 27, 2011, 4:43 AM EDTBy Diana ben-Aaron
April 27 (Bloomberg) Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, agreed to farm out its Symbian software development to Accenture Plc as part of wide-ranging job- reduction program at the Finnish company.
Under the partnership with Accenture, the world’s second- largest technology-consulting company will provide Symbian-based software development and support services, the companies said in a joint statement today. Nokia will shift 3,000 workers to Accenture, which will also work on Windows Phone 7 projects for Nokia.
In addition, Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, said today it plans to eliminate about 4,000 positions by the end of 2012 and consolidate research and development sites, it said in a separate statement.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop turned to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 to restore Nokia’s smartphone prospects after determining that the company’s own Symbian and MeeGo systems couldn’t keep up with Google Inc.’s Android, the fastest-growing smartphone platform. He said last week that he plans to slash 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in expenses at the handset business by 2013.
Nokia rose as much as 4 percent and was up 2.8 percent to 6.13 euros at 11:29 a.m. in Helsinki.
--Editors: Kenneth Wong, Simon Thiel.
To contact the reporter on this story: Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at dbenaaron1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong in Berlin at kwong11@bloomberg.net
