Telecom infrastructure vendor Ericsson may cut around 25,000 jobs outside Sweden, its headquarter, as part of its cost cutting program, according to a Reuters report quoting a report in Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet,

Ericsson has around 109,000 employees.

In 2016, Ericsson cut nearly 5,000 jobs. Ericsson earlier said the number of employees on Dec 31, 2016 was 111,464 compared with 113,797 on Sep 30, 2016. The decrease was mainly a result of headcount reductions as part of the cost and efficiency program.

Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm earlier said “In the near term, stability will be key to establishing a strong base for future growth. This means prioritizing profitability over growth, but also to diligently continue to work on efficiency and effectiveness across all operations.”
Ericsson said in July it would accelerate measures to meet a target of doubling its 2016 underlying operating margin of 6 percent and that it aimed to reach an annual cost reduction run rate of at least 10 billion crowns ($1.2 billion) by mid-2018.

Ericsson has said actions will be taken primarily in service delivery and common costs while research and development would be largely unaffected.

The company faces mounting competition from China’s Huawei and Finland’s Nokia as well as weak emerging markets and falling spending by telecoms operators with demand for next-generation 5G technology still years away.

Svenska Dagbladet said it was not clear whether the planned layoffs included employees within its media operations, which are up for strategic review and seen by analysts as likely to be sold by the group.

“Ericsson has not communicated which specific units or countries could be affected. It is too early to talk about specific measures or exclude any country,” said Ericsson in a statement on its website.