While Nokia is putting on a good show of happily hawking new Windows Phone 8 handsets worldwide, the company is busy at home clearing house and selling off several major assets, including ownership of its headquarters.

Nokia headquarters in Espoo, Finland

The struggling phone maker announced this week it will sell its headquarters in Espoo, Finland to software consultant Exilion for 170 million euros ($222M). Nokia will stay on the campus but lease the space.  Also announced this week: Nokia’s joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks will sell its optical networking business unit to private investment firm Marlin Equity Partners, and NSN’s business support systems unit is being sold to carrier billing firm Redknee.

On Monday, Nokia Siemens Networks announced that private investment firm Marlin Equity Partners will buy its Optical Networks unit, one of its last remaining businesses not relevant to NSN’s new 4G focus.  Marlin is a frequent tech investor, most recently buying lithium battery manufacturer MicroSun.  Marlin and NSN didn’t reveal any financial details, but the optical networking business will become an independent company and pick up approximately 1,900 current NSN employees based in Germany, Portugal and China.  The new company will be headquartered in Germany with Herbert Mertz at the helm as CEO.

Then on Wednesday, NSN revealed that Redknee is buying its business support systems unit for €40 million ($52 million USD).  Redknee will pick up about 1,200 NSN employees, primarily in Germany, India and Poland.

Nokia Siemens Networks is trying to reshape itself into a mobile broadband specialist, and shedding itself of unwanted businesses are key steps in that direction. The company hopes to shed 17,000 employees or 23 percent of its worldwide workforce, for a projected savings of US $1.35 billion next year.  Earlier this year NSN closed the sale of its IPTV assets to Belgacom and Accenture, its microwave transport business to DragonWave, and its fixed-line broadband access unit and network management solutions to Adtran.

Nokia Siemens Networks also plans to close a German services unit after failing to renew a five-year contract with Deutsche Telekom to service the company’s phone cables.  That closure will result in as many as 1,000 layoffs, according to a report from Bloomberg.