now that it has sold its loss making handset
business to Microsoft, naming on Tuesday a new
CEO, promising to pay dividends again and laying out its vision for its remaining operations.
For the first quarter - the last for which it will include
figures for its cellphones unit - Nokia said its net
loss was 239 million euros (173 million) compared
with a loss of 272 million a year earlier.
Revenue fell
to 2.6 billion euros from 3.1 billion euros, with mobile device sales plunging 30 percent.
To lead the Finnish company in its focus on the
remaining businesses of networks, software, and
maps, it named Rajeev Suri, the Indian-born former
head of Nokia Solutions and Networks, to become
CEO on May 1.
The 46-year-old, who joined Nokia in 1995, has been largely credited with a turnaround
in the company's networks sector.
Nokia Corp.'s shares closed up 3 percent at 5.29
euros on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said that a
"relief factor" partly explained the increase in the company's share price.
"The burden of old Nokia has gone and it's a fresh
start with the new Nokia," Mawston said.
Nokia, which completed the 5.44 billion-euro sale
of its troubled devices and services unit and a
license to a portfolio of patents to Microsoft Corp.
Last week, said it plans to invest 5 billion euros to
"optimize its capital structure," including paying 1.8
billion euros in dividends for 2013 and 2014.
Suri gave an upbeat forecast, saying Nokia will
continue expansion of its networks business,
which serves 90 of the world's 100 largest operators, and focus on its mapping services for car
navigation systems, where it has an 80 percent
market share with its HERE maps.
The technology division will further invest in
improving its innovation portfolio and explore new
technologies with a team that includes hundreds of scientists and engineers.
"Nokia's strategy is to develop its three businesses
in order to realize its vision of being a technology
leader in a connected world and, in turn, create
long-term shareholder value," said Suri, who
described Nokia as one of the world's largest software companies.
He also said Nokia was set to negotiate new
contracts concerning its licenses.
"All three areas looking a lot healthier for the new
Nokia, now that the old Nokia partner has been
jettisoned," said Mawston from Strategy Analytics.
Despite the slide in smartphones, Nokia maintained
its position in the first quarter as the world's second
largest maker of mobile phones, which includes
feature phones, according to research released by
Strategy Analytics on Tuesday.
It had a market share of 12 percent, shipping 47 million devices, behind Samsung's 28 percent and
113 million units but just ahead of Apple's 11
percent share and 43.7 million units, Strategy
Analytics said.
Nokia began as a maker of paper and gum boots in
1865 and transformed into a home electronics company before becoming an innovator in the
wireless industry from where it moved into mobile
telephony.
But it was unable to sustain its role as
the trendsetter and since its peak in 2008 when tit
led the cellphone business with a 40 percent global
market share, the company struggled to stay competitive in the lucrative smartphone sector
against the likes of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Samsung
Electronics and Asian brands which sold cheaper
smartphones.
Several Nokia models flopped and it failed to sense
popular trends such as touchscreen models and folding clamshell phones.
Its operating systems
also lagged behind, particularly compared with
Google Inc.'s popular Android.
In an attempt to reverse the slide, it teamed up with
Microsoft in 2011, replacing its old operating
system with one based on Windows, but consumers didn't warm to the Windows Lumia
handsets, and Microsoft bought the unit in an
attempt to mount a challenge to Apple and Google
as more technological tasks are done on mobile
devices instead of personal computers.
As part of the Microsoft deal, 25,000 Nokia employees, including 4,700 in Finland, moved over
to the U.S. giant, leaving Nokia with 55,300
workers worldwide.
Its headquarters in Espoo, near the Finnish capital
Helsinki, were taken over by Microsoft last
weekend and the company moved its personnel to a new head office nearby.
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