As it continues to downsize while conserving its cash, struggling mobile phone maker Nokia is looking to sell its global headquarters located in Espoo, Finland, for up to 300 million euros (about US$387 million). While a representative for Nokia has confirmed that it is evaluating this option, the company may end up just leasing back the building and has no plans of leaving Finland.
“As we said during Q2 results, Nokia is re-evaluating all non-core operations, including its real estate. However, we do not have any plans to move our headquarters,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail to TechCrunch. “As with most companies whose core business is not in owning real estate, it makes common business sense not to tie assets in real estate property but rather invest and focus in its core operations.”
The representative pointed out that selling and leasing the property back is quite common in Finland.
Nokia plans on cutting around $2 billion in costs by the end of 2013. This streamlining could affect 10,000 jobs, several factories, and other assets including its Qt development platform operations.
Source: Helsingen Sanomat, via TechCrunch
