Microsoft is slashing its Nokia handset business in half, cutting 12,500 jobs at the division, as chief executive Satya Nadella unveiled his first response to the group’s crumbling position in the mobile computing world.
The job cuts are part of 18,000 across the US software company, amounting to 14 per cent of its total workforce and the deepest in its 39-year history.
The drastic cuts pointed to a narrowing of Microsoft’s smartphone ambitions after years of steep losses, reducing its emphasis on the most profitable part of the market dominated by Apple, as well as the “feature phones” that have made Nokia’s brand synonymous with mobile communications.