The world's biggest telecom firm, Ericsson, reported Friday that its profit has doubled in the latest quarter, even though overall revenues declined eight per cent.
The Swedish-based firm improved its bottom line with a dramatic cut in its operating costs. The company CEO, Hans Vestberg, said a big problem in the quarter was an industry-wide shortage of the raw materials they need to build their products, plus problems in their own supply chain.
Ericsson was the biggest buyer of assets from bankrupt Nortel, and they have about 1,000 employees in Ottawa. Ericsson said at the time of its Nortel purchase that it wanted to spend more than $1 billion for the assets in order to help it get into the North American market in a bigger way.
On Friday, Vestberg said North America was the only region to see year-over-year sales revenues increase.
Ericsson stock tumbled seven per cent in New York by midday. Analysts said they had hoped for better sales figures, but were encouraged that Ericsson has made changes within the company to improve their fiscal situation.
