Finland’s Jolla considering hiring Nokia staff laid off by Microsoft

Finnish mobile company Jolla is interested in hiring Nokia employees, who have been laid off by Microsoft which has acquired the mobile manufacturer.   “What comes to the Microsoft job cuts: majority of our employees have a Nokia background, and we are always interested in new talent,” Jolla Head of Communications Juhani Lassila told PTI in an email query in this regard.   In July, Microsoft has announced slashing about 18,000 of its workforce over period of next year. This biggest job cut in history of Microsoft included about 12,500 employees of Nokia devices and services which it acquired for $7.2 billion in April this year.   Jolla has announced that it will soon launch its **Sailfish smartphone in India with e-commerce company Snapdeal** . The company already has some advance orders from India.   Some employees of Nokia devices, now Microsoft Devices Group, in India will also lose job as result of this announcement.   Jolla is a mobile handset company formed by a team of ex—Nokia employees who were working on a new mobile platform ’Meego’ which was dumped by Nokia in 2011 under the leadership of then CEO Stephen Elop.   Nokia in mid-2011 had unveiled only one phone—Nokia N9 on Meego in partnership with computer chip giant Intel.   Elop, who joined Nokia from Microsoft, decided to adopt the Windows platform and launched Lumia series smartphones. He is back to Microsoft as Executive Vice President of Microsoft Devices Group after the US software major completed Nokia devices business acquisition.   Jolla has offices in Helsinki and Tampere, Finland and Hong Kong, SAR of China. Jolla unveiled its first smartphone for about Rs. 34,000 in November on new platform Sailfish and is now expanding globally. PTI