Microsoft to cut 1,850 jobs at struggling smartphone unit

Costly mistake: Microsoft bought Nokia's struggling but once-dominant handset business for about US$7.2bil (RM29.36bil) in late 2013

HELSINKI/SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp announced more big cuts to its smartphone business, just two years after it bought handset maker Nokia in an ill-fated attempt to take on market leaders Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd .

In a move that clearly puts the stamp of two-year chief executive Satya Nadella on the US company, Microsoft said it would shed up to 1,850 jobs, most of them in Finland, and write down US$950mil (RM3.8bil) from the business. It did not say how many employees currently work on smartphones in the group as a whole.