Telia said that the cuts will reduce its group operating costs by $252 million
Telia has joined the growing ranks of tech and telecom companies shedding workers as part of a revised business strategy focused on cutting costs and improving efficiency. The Swedish operator is planning cut 3,000 jobs by the beginning of December.
Reports indicate that the cuts — of which about 1,400 will be in Sweden and the rest divided among Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Norway — will reduce Telia’s group operating costs by $252 million, offset somewhat by a $135 million additional restructuring charge in the second half of the year.
“This is a tough decision, but one that is necessary to ensure the long-term success of Telia,” CEO Patrik Hofbauer said. In an interview with Reuters, Hofbauer said: “We need to be much … simpler in the way we operate, faster on decision making, and also when it comes to commercial execution, and we need to create more margin … We are changing the operating model … we are putting much more responsibility and accountability into the countries, because there we meet our customers.”
Telia has already cut 450 staff this year. At the end of 2023, the operator claimed roughly 18,000 staff and 1,370 resource consultants.
Vodafone and BT have, in recent years, also enacted large-scale job cuts. More recently, jobs at Intel were on the chopping block as the telecom vendor continues to struggle to keep pace with competitors like AMD and Qualcomm in the current semiconductor climate.