Nokia misses forecast, ups saving target
Nokia missed analysts targets and has upped its cost saving targets in a difficult mobile infrastructure market.
The figures
Sales fell nine per cent in the first quarter of the year to €5.6bn (£4.4bn), missing analysts expectation of around €5.76bn.
In the Finnish firm's largest market, the US, sales fell 17 per cent , while in the Middle East they declined 11 per cent, in Asia six per cent, and in China, five per cent.
Sales declined eight per cent on the networking side of the business and 27 per cent on hte Technologies side.
Why it's interesting
Nokia's acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent was completed in January. That makes it the first earnings report to include the combined business. Meanwhile, it revealed plans to make job cuts across the business last month in a bid to make around €900m savings by 2018. But today, it said those savings would be above that figure.
What Nokia said
"I am pleased that we were able to deliver solid profitability in what is typically a seasonally weak quarter and at a time when the risk of integration-related disruption was high. While our revenue decline was disappointing, the shortfall was largely driven by Mobile Networks, where the challenging environment is not a surprise. We noted in our quarter 2015 earnings release that we expected some market headwinds in 2016 in the wireless sector and we continue to hold that view today," said president and chief executive Rajeev Suri