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Finnish Government Criticizes Microsoft For Job Cuts, 'Broken Promises' (softpedia.com)
jones_supa writes: Softpedia reports: "Microsoft has recently announced a new round of job layoffs at its Mobile unit in Finland, as it moves forward with its restructuring and reorganization plan following the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services unit. The Finnish government has criticized Microsoft for turning to more job cuts in the country, pointing out that the company has a huge responsibility to help those who are being let go. Microsoft's latest job cut round included 1,850 people, 1,350 of which are said to be working in Finland. 'I am disappointed because of the (initial) promises made by Microsoft,' Finance Minister Alexander Stubb was quoted as saying by Reuters. 'One example is that the data center did not materialize despite the company's promise.'" He refers to Microsoft's promise in 2013 to invest $250 million in a data center located in Finland that was specifically meant to provide services to European customers. All of these worries are not unfounded as the employment situation in Finland is still quite terrible, and the decline of Nokia's former phone business certainly exacerbates the situation.
So, it's Microsoft's job to make busy work for these people instead of letting them go?
Of course it doesn't end well for you guys. It never does. You really can't be surprised by their ethics at this point. Now bend over while we force-install this mobile OS on your desktop!
When will politicians stop believing corporate promises (lies)?? Corporations are only in it for themselves, they have zero concern for the communities they are present in.
Giving corporations sweetheart deals for promises of jobs or investment is the worst possible use of public money. It's corporate welfare, except these welfare recipients are spending the check on hookers and blow.
It was not intentional but Finland's economy is.was very dependent on two things cell phones and paper. Yes Nokia blew it when they sold to Microsoft and did not embrace their own Linux os that looked so promising, forked Android like Amazon, or went with Android. I think Nokia could have had a real winner with an Android phone with a Nokia camera. Nokia hardware was always good as are the cameras.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Back when Nokia cashed in in Germany to build a plant, then when the "incentives" were running out they closed shop and moved to Romania, what was Finland's reaction when Germans (plus the German government of that time) complained and called Nokia things I can't repeat in decent company?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The Seattle Times ran a tech piece the other day about this issue, the take being that poor old Microsoft is losing a ton of money on this effort. No mention of what Microsoft mole Elop did to Nokia in order to get the price down to where MS would by it, nor how bad Microsoft (read "Balmer") handled the whole thing. Here's the link:
All Microsoft needs to do is realize that there is a lot of pent-up demand for a top-notch, modern Linux distro that doesn't force systemd on its users.
Well, I realized the other day that I should be the Queen of England, but here we are.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
The Finnish government is just naive as is usual. Nothing new there. There was plenty of talks of data centers but I guess it was just the desperate grasping the straws in hopes of getting some crumbs. Whatever.
As for Nokia, going with Windows Phones was maybe the biggest mistake they could ever have made, and plenty of Finns were happy to point that out when it happened. Of course, Finns tend to complain about everything, so that does not necessarily mean anything. But Nokia had a very long time to get into the software ecosystem field, get a proper OS out, branch into Android among other things and so on. The top management just couldn't handle the transition to software side from hardware focus. This was evident years before with all the crap of Symbian never developing into anything reasonable (as in ecosystems, app development, etc.), and all other manufacturers abandoning it over time. The number of OS's Nokia worked on and never finishing any to a decent degree also tells enough. Even with hugely smaller resources, Jolla managed to put something usable out the door. Presumably because no-one was constantly throwing roadblocks at them within the company.
While hiring Elop and committing corporate suicide via WP was horrible, the later sale of Nokia mobiles to Microsoft is generally seen in Finland as a great move. Nokia management finally recognized MS and WP was a fast sinking ship, they had stacked the wrong boat, and they had to get out fast. So they managed to sell the burnt out corpse of a platform, along with its arsonist captain Elop, to MS for 5+billion and used that to get stronger on the network side. Of course, with the ongoing virtualization of network side to sfotware, and strong push from Huawei etc., who knows how that will end. But at least it is not consumer software.
Also some of the MS Mobile people in Finland have been offered positions in Seattle/US. But I guess they pick the best of the best, but so would I and anyone with any sense. What else?
Just sayin'.
Does this count ? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us...
Hah, this is a great comment. Yes, man, there is a pent up demand to go back to the old init + microsoft. The opportunity that is being squandered is a crime against humanity.
Sorry to hear about your predicament but blaming Finland is ridiculous. Finns gave more aid per capita to Greece than any other nation in the euro zone so the fact that Finland had to play tough was a simple necessity for any politician that wanted to get reelected. The number one reason for Greece's predicament is that the books were cooked when Greece wanted to join and Germany deliberately turned a blind eye to it to ensure that the euro zone was as large as possible from the very beginning. Now, obviously it seems unfair when minimum unemployment benefits in Finland are higher than many worker's salaries in Greece (or Spain for that matter) and perhaps there would've been a better way to reform the Greek economy. However, it would be ridiculous to expect more from the EU without some terms and conditions.l
The problem with Greece and Finland is the same. The Euro. It isn't working. You just need to look at the recoveries in e.g. Iceland or Sweden to see counter-examples of that.
The austerity policies have been a disaster and the idea that you can use the same standards and business methods in countries with dissimilar geography, language, natural resources, etc, etc is also a disaster.
Finland isn't part of Scandinavia, you fat moron.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."