Reports: Alcatel-Lucent set to slash 10,000 jobs

Telecoms manufacturer is on cost-cutting drive to save €1bn by 2015

Alcatel-Lucent is looking to slash thousands of jobs as it aims to save €1bn by 2015.

According to a Reuters story, the firm – which employs 72,000 staff worldwide, 1,400 of them in the UK – will actually cut 15,000 posts but create 5,000 new jobs.

France is particularly heavily hit, with the vendor aiming to cut 900 jobs, or 10 per cent of its work force.

However, the cuts would hit all regions with 4,100 planned in EMEA, 3,800 in Asia and 2,100 in the Americas, Reuters said.

The firm has endured a gloomy year, posting a 10-figure loss in its last annual results of almost €1.4bn, and losing chief executive Ben Verwaayen in February.

Current chief executive Michel Combes said the decisions had been "difficult", but were necessary to give the company an "industrially sustainable future".