Ericsson slashed its Italian network operations with the layoffs of more than 130 employees at its Genoa office.

Per Il Sole 24 Ore, Ericsson is closing down Genoa’s entire Business Area Networks unit, also known as BNEW, with 110 redundancies in total. As part of the closure was the entirety of its Optics research and development (R&D) division and part of another R&D department that dealt with advanced network technologies and infrastructure. Ericsson also cut 21 employees from its Business and Cloud Software and Services (BCSS) segment, according to a trade union source.

The same source claimed the layoffs formed “part of a broader strategic decision by the group aimed at reviewing its organizational structure and portfolio strategy,” and were influenced by “the constant and progressive decline of the Italian telecommunications market, which continues to face particularly challenging and difficult conditions.”

Staff took to LinkedIn to lambast the cuts, with senior software engineer Carla Marcenaro writing: “Bad news always drops on a Friday, as we know. To announce that 131 of our Ericsson Genoa colleagues are being let go, they chose Friday, September 11.

"I’m not among those directly impacted this time around, but I don’t feel safe at all, and I refuse to look the other way," Marcenaro added. "This isn't a sudden crisis either. It’s a slow, quiet quitting that’s been going on for years. We aren't just losing 'jobs' here. We are throwing away cutting-edge expertise that risks to never come back to Genoa. The people losing their job[s] today are the ones who actually drive the real and sustainable city economy.”

As of March 2025, Ericsson apparently employed more than 1,900 in Italy. Including Genoa, it has six Italian offices across Milan and Naples, with Pisa and Pagani making up its remaining R&D centers.

Ericsson rival Nokia has also been making cuts on the R&D side, with a reported halving of its Bell Labs workforce in the last five years.