Nokia Siemens Networks to start job cutting amid sell-off talks

Nokia Siemens Networks said today it will begin talks to lay-off around 400 employees in the coming week, as the firm continues to cut costs across its global operations. 

The estimated 400 workers are expected to get severance packages, according to Reuters, as part of the firm's move to restructure the business to make it attractive to prospective buyers.

The Helsinki, Finland-based joint venture between Nokia and Siemens, founded in 2007, said in November that it would cut close to a quarter of its workforce by 2013 -- around 17,000 jobs in total -- in a bid to save up to €1 billion ($1.29bn).

Nokia Siemens Networks, currently the fourth largest in the world after Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent, said this week was in talks with various companies to sell its business support systems (BSS) unit, as the firm looks to trim its product lines and focus on mobile broadband.

It was floated earlier this month that Ericsson could be looking to buy the BSS division and that the world's largest telecoms provider was in "pole position" to snap up the profit-making Nokia Siemens division.

The company has already sold off its wired network equipment, and ditched its WiMAX ventures once the market fell in favor of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies for next-generation 4G networks.

The global restructuring plan continues as the firm wants to maintain its long-term competitiveness and improve profitability in a "challenging telecoms market." Shortly before the plan was announced, Nokia cut 3,500 jobs across the phone maker's global business in what the company described as "painful, yet necessary."