Nokia starts review of digital health business, cuts jobs in Finland

[February 15, 2018] HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish network gear maker Nokia has started a strategic review of its digital health business and announced more than 400 job cuts in its home country.

Digital health, part of Nokia Technologies unit, is one of the areas where the company had been looking for growth opportunities amid a tough market for its mainstay telecom network gear business.

Nokia said in statement the review "may or may not result in any transaction or other changes".

The Finnish company said its patent business, brand partnerships and technology licensing units are not in the scope of the review.

In 2016 Nokia bought France's Withings, which makes activity trackers and thermometers, for 170 million euros ($212.3 million) as an initial move in the health market.

But the company wrote down 141 million euros of goodwill on the business in the third quarter of 2017.

The company also said it will cut up to 425 jobs this year in its home country Finland.

The reductions are part of a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) global cost-savings plan which was announced after its 2016 acquisition of Franco-American rival Alcatel-Lucent.

Nokia currently employs 6,300 people in Finland and around 102,800 globally.

(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Adrian Croft and Keith Weir)

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