Microsoft China

Microsoft will close two Chinese factories that it acquired when it bought Nokia’s handset business in April 2014, cutting 9,000 jobs..

The report by MarketWatch said the two factories were in Beijing and Dongguan, and that some equipment and production would be shifted to Vietnam.

The two factories were picked up by Microsoft when it bought Nokia’s handset division last year for $US 7.2 billion (about $9.2 billion). It announced in July that it would shed 18,000 jobs.

A Dow Jones Newswires report pointed out that Microsoft was not alone in pulling labour out of China. Recent high profile examples of factory closures include Japan’s Citizen’s decision to close a watchmaking factory and lay off over 1,000 workers.

Mary Jo Foley, a long-time Microsoft watcher writing for ZDNet, noted that the report didn’t spell out whether the 9,000 Microsoft redundancies were in addition to earlier announcement of 18,000 job losses.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet that “these [were] a part of previously announced cuts.”

Source: Manufacturer’s Monthly – Microsoft to close two China handset factories, sack 9,000

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Categories: Manufacturing & Industry

Tags: China, Investment, Manufacturing, Microsoft, United States, Vietnam