Tieto gave a profit warning two weeks ago. It was due to the fast decline of our sales in the financial crisis that hits the whole world. In Finland we started activities to improve the sales operations in the beginning of year. The results have been encouraging, but not yet enough.

As part of the streamlining actions Tieto Group has decided to start the codetermination negotiations on production and financial grounds in Finland. The target for the negotiations is to agree on the means to adapt Tieto’s operations to correspond to the fast deterioration on the market and to the structural changes of the company.

The personnel savings will affect the following companies owned by the Group: TietoEnator Oyj, TietoEnator Finland Oy and the joint venture TietoSaab Oy. The personnel savings in Finland will be sum up to to the termination of the employment for max. 300 persons and the temporary layoffs of max. 1 500 persons for a fixed or undefined time period.

Estimated effects on the personnel are:

• TietoEnator Finland Oy: termination of the employment for max. 280 persons and temporary layoffs of max. 1 200 persons for a fixed or undefined time period
• TietoEnator Oyj: termination of the employment for max. 20 persons and temporary layoffs of max. 230 persons for a fixed or undefined time period

TietoSaab Oy: temporary layoffs of the whole personnel for a fixed or undefined time period.

The actions will affect all personnel groups and locations in Finland. They will be brought to action during the year 2009.

During the negotiations the Group will also study the possibilities to consolidate premises and to work remotely in the current locations in Finland. More information about this will be provided in the coming months.

Other savings actions, such as decreasing the subcontractors, have been published earlier and they apply to the whole Group. Regarding the subcontracting, we have decided to replace 500 subcontractors with our own personnel as soon as possible.

The current situation is very challenging for all of us – the ever weakening outlook of the market and economy are forcing us to make quick decisions to correct the course. However, I emphasize the importance of sales efforts to increase our business volumes. This will have a significant impact on the length of the temporary lay-offs. Every invoiced hour and service will improve our situation.

The market situation is tight regarding the new IT projects, but for example in the outsourcing business we have good opportunities to gain more sales and this way improve the employment situation in Tieto.As we are now forced to start these negotiations, we want to proceed in a good and open cooperation with all the parties. We will inform you regularly on the progress of the negotiations in the quarterly information meetings in different locations as well as on Focus.

Ari Karppinen