BENGALURU: The tech giant, Microsoft recently confirmed that the company is going to close its Finnish mobile phone manufacturing unit and will cut up to 1,350 jobs in the Nordic country. The job cut is part of Microsoft’s plan to shed 1850 jobs from its smartphone services. The job elimination was initially announced in May.

Microsoft bought the troubled phone business in 2014 from Nokia, Finland's biggest company by paying 7.2 billion dollars, but failed to make a success of new devices. In May, Windows-powered smartphones accounted for less than 1% of global smartphone business.

The decision has come a week after the Microsoft’s announcement to sell its entry-level feature phone assets to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology group and HMD global for 350 million dollars. The company will transfer nearly 4500 of its employees to FIH Mobile and HMD Global. As part of the deal, FIH Mobile will acquire Microsoft’s Hanoi manufacturing unit.

The company will continue to develop Windows 10 Mobile and support Lumia phones including Lumia 650, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, and phones from OEM partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and VAIO.

The tech giant will transfer substantially all of its feature phone assets, including brands, software and services, care network and other assets, customer contracts, and critical supply agreement to the FIH Mobile and HMD Global. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year.

Headquartered at Helsinki, Finland, HMD Global is a recently-founded company run by former Nokia and Microsoft executive Arto Numella. The company recently said that it has signed a licensing agreement with Nokia Technologies for the sole use of the Nokia brand on mobile phones and tablets worldwide for the next decade, as well as key cellular patents – reports CNBC.

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