Microsoft’s Nokia Employees Protests Against Layoffs

Microsoft’s Nokia Employees Protests Against Layoffs

Nearly a hundred Chinese employees at Microsoft Corp’s Nokia phone business protested against mass layoffs.

According to an employee, who took part in the protest; the protesters held banners and shouted slogans against “Microsoft’s hostile takeover and violent layoffs” for five hours until “they had sore throats.

Microsoft announced the deepest job cuts in its 39-year history, amounting to 18,000 positions. Microsoft said up to 12,500 of those jobs would come from Nokia, the Finnish handset maker it bought in April in a US$7.2bil (RM23.12bil) friendly takeover.

The protests took place at Beijing Research Centre and factory employing 2,400 people, according to a statement from organizers, and amounted to the latest in a string of troubles for the US software giant in China.

Since taking the helm of Microsoft, chief executive Satya Nanimblestrong> has pledged to slim down his company to compete with nimbler internet-based rivals.
The latest cuts, which will be completed by June 30, 2015, represent about 14% of Microsoft’s worldwide workforce.