In October 2019, Nokia dropped its 2019/2020 financial outlook, as profits came under pressure due to the company’s increased spending on its 5G portfolio. And whilst Nokia did meet its third-quarter expectations, it still decided to cut profit predictions. On top of this, the company paused dividend payments in order to raise investments for 5G, and as a result Nokia shares plummeted by 21%.
However, a year is a long time in the 5G market, and since this point Huawei has been hit by bans on its 5G technology in a number of countries, and Nokia has rolled out its next-generation 5G AirScale Cloud RAN solution, based on vRAN2.0.
Latest Nokia results
Today, the Finnish telecoms equipment supplier announced that it has more than doubled its profits in the third quarter of 2020, as Nokia’s incoming CEO, Pekka Lundmark (pictures), who moved to the head of the company in August, vowed to take on its rivals, and “play to win”.
"In those areas we choose to compete, we will play to win. We will do whatever it takes to lead in 5G.”
Pekka Lundmark, Nokia.
"In those areas we choose to compete, we will play to win," Lundmark said. "We will do whatever it takes to lead in 5G and we are ready to invest more.”
The latest financial results from Nokia show a €193m ($227m) net profit for the three months up to September, which is an €82m increase over the same period in 2019. But the fall in sales of 7% had an instant reaction on the stock-market, where the share price dropped from €3.45 at the close of play on Wednesday, to a low of €2.84 – an 18% drop.
And Lundmark provided an honest outlook of what’s expected from Nokia in 2021, saying that “our financial performance in 2021 is expected to be challenging”.
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