Microsoft to lay off 1,000 Nokia employees?

Rumors are mounting that Microsoft is preparing its biggest round of job cuts in the last five years as the software giant is trying to get slimmer. Nothing is official yet but the rumor mill claims this round of layoffs could be bigger than Microsoft did in 2009 when it cut 5,800 jobs, or about 5 percent of the company's global workforce at the time.

ZD Net writes Nokia's facilities in Finland may be hit pretty hard. Finnish media speculate the software giant could shed 1,000 out of the 4,700 jobs there.

Microsoft absorbed around 25,000 Nokia employees when it officially acquired Nokia's devices and services business in April, including 4,700 workers in Finland. Those former Nokia employees may bear the brunt of the layoffs Microsoft will reportedly announce later this month. The number of staff expected to be made redundant could top the 5,000 job losses Microsoft announced 2009. If a report from Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat is correct, many of those affected could come from Finland.