Accenture exist Oulu

As has already been speculated for a while, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is closing its unit in Oulu, Finland. This means some 140 employees handling mainly outsourcing duties to Nokia (OMX: NOK1V) will be let go in Oulu and 275 in total in Finland with a further 46 workers laid off. It leaves the big multinational’s Finnish operations with just over 1500 people in Helsinki and Tampere. IT consultancy functions will be concentrated in the latter location. The employees moved to Accenture as a part of a deal with Nokia last year where the Finnish mobile phones maker wanted to find a way to rid itself of Symbian developers in a way that would leave it with least amount of blame and backlash. Accenture said at the time it foresaw great opportunities to utilize the skills of Nokia engineers in various fields but even before this final axe, nearly half of the workforce moved to the company in Oulu had been made redundant.