Nokia to lay off half of work force

[JES]

Interesting and I wonder what the affect will be locally, especially if they lay off the other 50%.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20060808-1441-bn08nokia.html

[mixxalot]

Funny I just got layed off from my job yesterday at Claritas. I wonder how people can afford housing prices with all the mass layoffs and cuts in San Diego employers? At least my apartment is a lot cheaper than a mortgage payment!

[JES]

These are 550+ very well paid engineers no less, and some support staff etc I imagine. Many will find jobs elsewhere in the city though.

[JES]

More layoffs in biotech:

Neurocrine Bio To Cut 100 Jobs At San Diego Campus

http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=38197&lang=fra&NewsRubrique=2

[lindismith]

mixxalot, I’m sorry to hear that. Do you have any leads?

[masayako]

I told you guys so.

http://piggington.com/up_and_coming_nokia_job_cut_in_san_diego

Only 500 people will be retained. So, roughly a total of 500+ job will be loss by end of Apr.

I believe majority of the people will be gone by Oct 31, 2006. That’s my assumption.

[ybc]

Masayako, I thought of your earlier comments when the news came out yesterday. So do you know what type of jobs got impacted the most? And will Qualcomm and Motorola asborb a lot of these jobs?

[JES]

Yes, you called this one! And I bet you are right. Better for Nokia to soften the blow by making it look like they will try to keep half, and perhaps they will make an effort. But in the end I bet it all shuts down except for a small group.

[powayseller]

What’s going on over at Claritas and Neurocrine?

Although the Neurocrine and Nokia layoffs don’t seem directly related to the housing slowdown, perhaps they are a leading indicator of a slowing economy?

Or is this just a continuation of the decline of jobs in San Diego (think about the RB TV plant, Buck Knives, and the steady erosion of manufacturing jobs).

[bob007]

employment is a lagging indicator of a slowdown. Nokia is specific to maturation/shifts of wireless industry. If QUALCOMM scales back tomorrow watch out.

[Daniel]

Neurocrine lay-offs are related to the FDA rejection of their would-be blockbuster, Indiplon. Check out the stock chart for NBIX. First big drop is when FDA made the announcement, second drop is when Pfizer (as a result of the rejection) decided to stop working with them. If there is a single lay-off story that has absolutely nothing to do with the economy or the housing market, then this is it.

[masayako]

ybc,

“Masayako, I thought of your earlier comments when the news came out yesterday. So do you know what type of jobs got impacted the most? And will Qualcomm and Motorola asborb a lot of these jobs?”

>>> SW developers got impacted the most. Mgmt will retain a total of 500 jobs in SD, the impacted ones are mostly sw engineers, mid mgrs, project mgmt, testing engineers. I know some marketing folks will be gone too.

Qualcomm and Motorola are certainly lurking for talents. But I doubt if they can absorb everyone.

Qualcomm: The CDMA market is shrinking (to roughly 20%). Telecom market is extremely competitive. Unless there’s a need to fill a vacancy, otherwise I don’t think they are adding a lot of headcounts.

Motorola: Some mgmt folks told me that the Motorola site in San Diego is fighting for a big project with another Motorola site. That’s why they are hiring many ppl to get themselves into position to take on the proj. I think in the long term, working for Motorola is not as stable as everyone assume it is, just like Kyocera. That’s just my opinion.

[masayako]

JES,

Nokia promise NOT to lay off anymore after this. Well… we never know. But that’s the committment they have right now.

The 500 people that remains will work on GSM/WCDMA cellphone.

Qualcomm got to look out for their shrinking CDMA market. Nokia + GSM in U.S. is a very powerful combination. Look at Asia and Europe, 1/3 of people are Nokia fans, some of them owns more than 1 Nokia phone at a time.

[an]

What I heard is 150-200 people will still be working on ODM, rebranding 3rd party phone as Nokia for CDMA. So that leave about 300-350 for WCDMA. With Sprint announcing they’ll be going w/ WiMax for their 4th gen network, CDMA is definitely losing its luster. Who knows what will happen to QCOM if CDMA start losing more market share.

[bob007]

Motorola and Scientific Atlanta are a duopoly in cable tv equipment and set top boxes

[Author]

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