Finnish IT giant Nokia announced a plan to save 700 million euros (796 million U.S. dollars) by 2020, after its poor quarterly results were published on Thursday.

Compared with the same period in 2017, Nokia's operating profit (non-IFRS) stood 487 million euros, falling by 27 percent, while its net sales was 5.46 billion euros, down by 1.0 percent.

The sharp decline in profitability was attributed to the poor performance by both Nokia's Networks business and Nokia Technologies.

The operating profit (non-IFRS) of Networks business slipped by 26 percent to 246 million euros, while Nokia Technologies lost 26 percent of earning in one year from 390 million euros to 290 million euros.

Some international analysts explained that the reason is Nokia had a 170 million euro one-time payment for patents during Q3 in 2017, but "there was no such thing this year".

The company announced a spending cut plan on Thursday, aiming to save up to 700 million euros over the next two years.

Nokia said the plan is expected to result in a reduction of employees globally, but did not specify the number of the layoffs.

In an interview with CNBC, Rajeev Suri, President and CEO, said that the number of job cuts "will be thousands".

Suri said in a press release that the plan is "the logical step to take as the completion of our Alcatel-Lucent-related cost saving program draws near". (1 euro =1.14 U.S. dollars)