I acknowledge that our postings have a been a bit video heavy lately and continue to be so this week, but still wanted to give you a few, what I think is very useful, soundbites from Michael Arrington, editor and founder of TechCrunch. Despite the on-going general post-LeWeb brouhaha in the web, this is worth a watch. Andrea Vascellari, CEO of iTive.net consultancy did a good job asking Arrington where he sees the startups given the current economic climate.

Here’s the key take aways from the video:

• In a tough economic climate winners find an aggressive way to expand without spending a lof of money by
  • Reducing head count
  • Paying lower salaries now that they are collectively down
  • Paying less for everything = lower expenses overall
  • Acquiring competitors pennies for dollar when they are about to belly up
• A lot of startups make headcount adjustments already, which is probably a smart move (Think Fruugo and Blyk)
• Those startups that have better execution end up being winners (this is something that I believe always bares repeating even though it’s a no-brainer)
• Remember that this downturn is different! Those who act as they acted in the previous one probably end up being one of the losers.
• You have to be quick on your feet and agile
• Those who focus on technical market analysis on what used to work tend to too poorly in the new climate: You should look at the playing field as a new one and compete given that

Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone giant, has announced the shedding of 600 jobs.

The following sectors will get hit: Approximately 450 employees, maximum 100 in Finland, in the Markets unit will be affected, 130 Nokia Research Center employees globally, of which again a maximum of 100 are in Finland. Some smaller workforce adjustments are also in the plans in the global process operations. The adjustments in process operations are estimated to affect approximately 35 employees, of which almost all are in Finland.

In addition to the job cuts, Nokia plans to close its Turku site (Finland) and relocate those activities predominantly to Salo (Finland).

The changes in the Markets unit, Nokia Research Center and in other Nokia functions will come into effect on January 1, 2009. The closing of the Turku site is estimated to be completed by the end of January, 2009.

I am happy to announce that Karri Saarinen, an entrepreneur, web developer and an economics graduate student joins our ranks at ArcticStartup.

Karri will bring his strong technological understanding to our editorial team. This will enable us to dive even deeper into the technological innovations that the startups we follow bring into the market.

I believe that despite the hardship that the economy’s downturn brings with it, it is also a healthy correction for the web 2.0 startup industry, even though this time our industry was not responsible for it like in the 2000s. Thus, I am sure that we will see healthier and more focused startups in the future and that is why we want to make sure ArcticStartup is better equipped than ever to write about the new startups. For this reason, Karri will be a a perfect addition to ArcticStartup team and give us the needed resources to bring you the news on the latest new startups across the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Welcome Karri!