Massive Nokia job cuts loom

Nokia is to axe 1 800 jobs globally as part of a new strategy to regroup after falling further behind its rivals in the high-end smartphone market, reports V3.

Up to 310 UK employees could be affected by the move, a spokesman said.

The Symbian^3 or Symbian^4 names are also facing the chop, but Nokia says consumers will benefit from “constant improvement in the experience of their Symbian-based Nokia products”.

Nokia claims that there will be continued support for the platform, and that people who have purchased devices such as the N8 will not be cast aside.

Google has saved $3.1 billion in taxes since 2007 by shuttling its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands, then on to a haven in Bermuda, according to the company's regulatory filings, says the Register.

As reported by Bloomberg Businessweek, Google uses techniques known as “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich” to lower its foreign tax rate to a scant 2.3%. This is the lowest rate among the top five US tech giants, according to the report.

Like many other US outfits, Google uses a known loophole in Irish tax law that lets the company legally avoid local taxes by moving profits between subsidiaries based in the country before routing them to countries such as Bermuda that do not levy corporate taxes. The technique sidesteps taxes not only abroad, but in the US as well. In the US, the corporate tax rate is 35% while in the UK it is 28%.

Facebook, Amazon and Zynga will invest in a fund to help entrepreneurs develop applications and services for a new era of the social Web, states the BBC.

The lion's share of the sFund's $250 million will come from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Details were revealed at an event at Facebook's California headquarters.

"There's going to be an opportunity over the next five years or so to pick any industry and rethink it in a social way," said Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

The mobile computing industry's value will exceed a trillion dollars by 2014, according to Gartner, notes V3.

Speaking at the company's Symposium/ITxpo conference, Nick Jones, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said the growth in voice and data traffic would require a new focus for corporate IT managers.

“We see three major eras of mobility. The device era was characterised by iconic devices such as the Motorola RAZR and was dominated by device manufacturers. This was followed by the application era, which arrived with the iPhone, popularising application and media stores,” said Jones.