Nokia Siemens Networks recently announced that it will cut as many as 1,200 jobs in Finland and lay off another 2,900 workers in Germany as it begins to restructure the company. Both Nokia and Siemens originally tried to sell the joint venture, which has struggled to report a profit, but gave up those plans this past summer. The move is expected to save €1 billion per year, Reuters said Tuesday. Nokia Siemens Networks is the second larger maker of phone network equipment in the world behind Ericsson, and the joint venture was originally created to help both Siemens and Nokia better compete on a global scale. Nokia Siemens Networks originally said that it plans to cut as many as 17,000 jobs by 2013. 

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Things aren’t looking so pretty at Sony Ericsson as the handset maker a little while ago posted its fourth-quarter earnings showing a loss of $270 million, pre-tax. Of course, this should come as no surprise to anyone since SE’s earnings reports the past few quarters, six to be exact, were just as disappointing. The company also recently had major layoffs and restructuring the past few months. However, SE is remaining cautiously optimistic for 2010. While other manufacturers are expecting a big rise in the cell phone market in 2010, SE sees things a little more modestly. Since smartphones and high-end devices are Sony Ericsson’s overall weakness right now by comparison to Apple, HTC and BlackBerry, we’re thinking that there is a lot riding on the XPERIA X10 with Android due out very soon.

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Keeping the good times rolling today, Samsung has announced that it will undergo a massive reorginization in an effort to stay afloat during the economic downturn. Among the info it smacked shareholders with this morning, the company will split into two separate divisions: a Digital Media and Communications division that will focus on mobile phones, televisions and other consumer electronics, and a Device Solution division that will handle the component, semiconductor and LCD businesses. Current Samsung Electronics CEO Lee Yoon-woo will retain his title and will head the Device Solution division while Choi Gee-sung, current president of Samsung’s cellphone unit, will head up the Digital Media and Communications division. There will also be another healthy round of musical chairs involving a variety of key roles throughout the company. Samsung is scheduled to announce its Q4 2008 earning on January 23rd and this massive announcement exactly one week prior to the earnings call doesn’t bode well to say the least. Samsung posted a 44 percent drop off in Q3 2008, compared to the same quarter one year prior.

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