Alcatel-Lucent is to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of 2015 as part of a strategy unveiled in June aimed at turning around the ailing infrastructure vendor.

The French company’s operations around the world will be affected by the workforce reduction, with 4,100 jobs going in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 3,800 in Asia Pacific and 2,100 in the Americas.

At the end of 2012, the company had approximately 72,000 employees.

A further 900 employees could be moved internally, transferred to partners or redeployed by 2015 as part of the transformation. The company also plans to reduce the number of business hubs it has around the world by 50 per cent.

The company presented the job cut proposals to its European works council as part of the ‘The Shift Plan’ which is aimed at restoring profitability and bringing about “a sustainable financial future and successful company transformation”.

The company is responding to a tough business environment by repositioning itself as a specialist in IP networking, cloud and ultra-broadband access.

A previously announced objective of The Shift Plan is to achieve fixed cost savings of €1 billion by 2015 by cutting R&D spend on legacy technology by 60 per cent and cutting administrative, sales and support functions to bring the company in-line with industry standards.

Alcatel-Lucent will also increase the proportion of R&D investment going towards next generation technologies such as 4G, IP platforms and small cells to 85 per cent from 65 per cent.

“To carry out this plan we must make difficult decisions and we will make them with open and transparent dialogue with our employees and their representatives. The Shift Plan is about the company regaining control of its destiny,” said Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent (pictured).