Board members at Finnish vendor Nokia could lose their jobs when the group unveils its turnaround strategy this month, according to reports citing German weekly Wirtschaftswoche.
Newly appointed CEO Stephen Elop is due to announce measures on 11 February…
Board members at Finnish vendor Nokia could lose their jobs when the group unveils its turnaround strategy this month, according to reports citing German weekly Wirtschaftswoche.
Newly appointed CEO Stephen Elop is due to announce measures on 11 February to combat heavy competition from smartphone rivals Apple and Google.
The VP for Nokia’s mobile unit, Mary McDowell, VP for its markets unit, Niklas Savander, and CDO Tero Ojanpera could all go, suggests the report.
An undisclosed headhunter has also been appointed to find replacements with good software expertise, the reports add.
Industry watchers have been expecting a management shake-up ever since it emerged that Elop was set to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as CEO on 21 September.
A new strategy from Nokia could also see the group embrace a third party operating system, such as Google’s Android, in addition to its Symbian platform.
Announcing on 27 January that Q4 net profit had fallen to E742m from E882m a year ago, Elop warned the group “faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution. In short, the industry changed, and now it’s time for Nokia to change faster”.
Revenue increased 6% to E12.6bn for the three months to 31 December 2010, compared with E11.9bn a year earlier.
Placing Nokia’s A2/P-1 ratings on review for possible downgrade, a note from ratings agency Moody’s note to investors cautioned: “Despite the solid contributions of the new [smartphone] models including the new Symbian based N8 and the affordable C3 in Q4, it is still uncertain if they will have a meaningful impact on long-term revenues and margins.”
Nokia declined to discuss details of its upcoming strategy before it is announced on Friday.
