Symbian Foundation job losses to hit UK hardest

Dozens of London-based Symbian Foundation employees are set to lose their jobs as a result of the foundation's transition to being a licensing organisation.

Symbian Foundation chief Tim Holbrow told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that around 75 of the 100 foundation employees are based in Southwark, with the rest being spread across the US, Japan, China, Korea and Australia. Most of the workers are permanent staff. "After 1 April, it's unlikely we will need any permanent staff at all," Holbrow said.

ZDNet UK understands that many of the employees will leave the foundation around Christmastime, and that they were made aware of their imminent redundancy approximately two weeks ago.

According to Holbrow, the non-permanent staff that will remain are required to "keep the legal structures" of Symbian's open-source licensing in place, and to administer the Symbian trademark licence and patent policy.

The Symbian Foundation, which oversaw the open-sourcing of the mobile platform over the past two years, announced on Monday that it was to move to being a licensing body, following Sony Ericsson and Samsung's decision to stop using the platform. Nokia, which recently announced its own layoffs, has now taken development of Symbian back in-house.