Alibaba Group, the world's biggest e-commerce company, said it will recruit Nokia Corp employees who will lose their jobs as part of the US company's plan to lay off 18,000 jobs globally by next year.

On its Sina Weibo account, Alibaba offered a hint of hope to the thousands of Nokia Corp workers who are expecting to be laid off from the software maker as part of the takeover by Microsoft Corp.

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Alibaba said it is willing to recruit people that will be laid off from Nokia as it aims to expand its cloud computing business.

Alibaba's cloud computing business, Aliyun (AliCloud), opened its first data center in Hong Kong last May and the Chinese e-commerce giant aims to develop its cloud computing business in order to compete with major players.

Alibaba's job offer, however, could only be good for Nokia China workers who are set to lose their jobs by the end of 2014. Nokia is set to cut 90 percent of its total workforce in China, mostly based in Tianjin and Beijing.

"We are willing to offer an opportunity for Nokia employees to achieve their dreams," Alibaba said without further providing details.

Alibaba, which is set to launch the biggest IPO in tech history at the New York Stock Exchange this year, has been on an acquisition spree, targeting startups and established technology companies.

Alibaba's announcement for Nokia workers came after the US-based software firm announced last month that it will trim its global workforce by 18,000 in 2015 following the USD7.2bn acquisition by Microsoft.

The job cut will affect Nokia's phone engineering unit in Beijing as the company seeks to concentrate its engineering efforts in Finland, said former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, now head of Microsoft's devices group.

In a message posted on Microsoft's website, Elop said engineering works in Beijing, China and San Diego, California will be trimmed down but both sites will continue to serve as supporting roles.

TagsNokia, Nokia Lay OFf, Micsofot