Attempts by the American authorities to restrain the development of Huawei do not make life much easier for other telecommunications equipment manufacturers. The Finnish company Nokia has hired consultants to look for strategic alternatives, which may involve creating an alliance with one of its competitors.
The relevant information was distributed by the agency with reference to knowledgeable sources. According to these data, various steps from selling assets to merging with one of the competitors are being considered as alternatives. Capital restructuring and changing priorities in investment activities also remain on the agenda. There is no confidence yet that these discussions will lead to real changes.
Nokia shares have lost almost a third in value over the past year. In October, the company worsened its revenue forecast and suspended dividend payments; in December, it announced the upcoming resignation of the chairman of the board of directors. Sources attribute Nokia to a possible alliance with Ericsson, but representatives of the companies refrained from commenting on this topic. Such a deal would be subject to significant political pressure and scrutiny from antitrust authorities.
Bloomberg experts explain that Nokia's competitiveness is worsened by protracted integration with Alcatel-Lucent, which it bought in 2016, as well as the lack of customer-friendly offers in the base station segment for 5G networks. Time is working against Nokia in this situation, since the expansion of new generation networks has already begun. The American authorities considered the possibility of using Nokia equipment to reduce dependence on the disgraced Huawei, but all such statements are not in the market plane, but in the political one. Nokia did not include the possibility of revenue growth outside the Chinese market in its forecast for the current year.
Source: 3dnews.ru