Nokia To Shutter Its Chennai Plant From November 1 | TechTree.com

Nokia To Shutter Its Chennai Plant From November 1

The move will mark the company's exit from India and also from the handset manufacturing space

 

Erstwhile mobile phone giant Nokia has announced that it will shut production at its Chennai plant from November 1, citing the lack of orders coming in from Microsoft. Owing to a tax dispute, the plant was left out of the $7.2 billion deal which saw Microsoft take ownership of Nokia's entire handset manufacturing division.

"In absence of further orders from Microsoft, Nokia will suspend handset production at the Sriperumbudur facility from 1st November," said the company in a statement.

Soon after the deal between firms was finalized in April, the Finnish company forged a contract manufacturing agreement with Microsoft to keep the facility running. However, according to Nokia, the latest move comes as a follow up to Microsoft informing the company that it was terminating the contract as off November 1.

The Nokia factory at Chennai in its heyday employed over 6,000 people, but following the Rs 21,000 crore (approx $3.5 billion) charge and freezing of assets by the income tax department last year, that number has been massively reduced. Nokia is still pursuing the case in the Supreme Court.

The company added that it is working on minimizing the impact on existing employees at the manufacturing facility. The shuttering of the facility at Chennai will mark Nokia's exit from India, and also its exit from the handset manufacturing game.


TAGS: Nokia, Microsoft, Chennai facility

 
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