Finland feels betrayed by Microsoft’s upcoming job cuts

Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb received a call Thursday from Stephen Elop, the head of Microsoft Corp.’s device business and a former Nokia Corp. chief executive, alerting him that Microsoft would cut 1,100 of the 4,700 jobs in Finland that came with its purchase of Nokia’s mobile phone operations. Mr. Stubb called the layoffs “extremely regrettable” and said the government would do all it could to cushion the blow to those affected. While the job-loss news was dispiriting for Finland, it wasn’t a big surprise and there is evidence that the nation’s startups may benefit from some of the losses. It was widely feared in Finland that Microsoft would eventually start restructuring the unprofitable handset unit it bought from Nokia in April. Finnish politicians issued statements on Thursday calling on Microsoft to show social responsibility and offer retraining and generous severance packages to the people it is dismissing, something which Nokia has done in the past in Finland and abroad. Some went further and accused Microsoft of reneging on the promises it supposedly made about job security and Finland’s place in its strategy when it was in the process of buying Nokia’s handset business. “You can say we were betrayed,” said Finland’s newly-minted Minister of Finance Antti Rinne, a Social Democrat.