Finland Times

Labour Minister Lauri Ihalainen. Photo Lehtikuva

The Labour Minister , Lauri Ihalainen  on Tuesday said that hand over of Nokia to Microsoft would  not have an immediate impact on employment in the country as  4,700 Nokia employees will start working for Microsoft with the same terms of employment.

 

Expressing his reaction over the handover of country’s mobile phone manufacturing giant, the minister said that with the transaction, Microsoft will emerge as one of the biggest employers in Finland, said an official press release.

 

“I believe that the sale of Nokia's mobile phone business may be a possibility in the long term even though it's impossible to predict what will happen going forward,” said Lauri Ihalainen, adding that Microsoft has announced that Finland will be the main location of its European operations.

 

Terming Nokia as the most successful Finnish company in history, the minister said that the sale of Nokia's mobile phone business symbolizes a transformation in Finnish industrial structure.

 

“Microsoft is a strong and credible new owner for Nokia's mobile phone business. Nokia and Microsoft complement one another,” said the minister, adding that the change in ownership does not in itself save or destroy jobs.

 

Nokia's ability to succeed in the network business improves with the transaction, even though a very different Nokia will be what is left.

Nokia has announced that Microsoft will set up a data centre in Finland and will invest nearly 200 million euros in Finland in the coming years. Negotiations on the investment have been going on for a while now and the government has done all it can to get the data centre to Finland.

 

“This investment is important to Finland. Its impact during the construction phase is particularly positive,” said Ihalainen.