Nokia cuts research staff by up to 330 people

Mobile phone giant Nokia on Friday said it will cut up to 330 people from its research and development staff.

The changes are expected to affect up to 230 employees at Nokia's site in Oulu, Finland, and about 100 employees based in Copenhagen.

The Finnish company has more than 17,000 people working in research and development, it said.

Nokia will begin consultations with unions, with voluntary severance packages among the things that are on the table, it said.

This isn't the first time Nokia has announced staff cuts this year. On March 17 it announced plans to cut 1,700 employees in various parts of the company.

On Sept. 30 Nokia employed a total of 123,347 people, which are about 340 more than it employed at the same time in 2008. Almost half of those, approximately 64,000, worked for Nokia Siemens Networks. That number was up by about 4,000 from 2008.

On Oct. 15 Nokia reported a third-quarter loss of €559 million (US$827 million) that it blamed on charges related to its Nokia Siemens business.

But at the same time, it sold more phones, and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was cautiously optimistic about the future.