Nokia shares and employees seem to be dropping today after the announcement of their partnership with Microsoft. Investors are showing a number of concerns with the deal, with many saying that they don’t think it will be enough to save the Finnish company or even help Microsoft stave off competition from Google and Apple.
According to Bloomberg Business week, Nokia’s shares fell by 14 percent on the news, the largest drop for the company since July 16.
Rumors are abound on the Internet too, where Betanews translated a Finnish news site that said around 1,000 Nokia employees had walked out by using their flextime and finishing the day early. While Bloomberg quoted a union representative who said “A lot of workers decided to use flexible working hours and go home to think about what these changes bring,”.
The employee walk out is more likely to do with the upcoming job losses that are set to hit the Finnish company over the next few months, especially with around 1,500 workers employed on the Symbian side of the company, the operating system that they will be phasing out over time.
Meanwhile Google"s EMEA recruiter Aiden Biggins has posted a cheeky tweet to any disgruntled Nokia staff, “Any Nokia software engineers need a job? We’re hiring: www.google.com/jobs.”