Although Nokia sold its mobile phone business many years ago, it looks like the Finnish company is in deep waters once again. Nokia’s mobile networks business is no longer as profitable as it was four years ago when Chief Executive Officer Pekka Lundmark took the reins in an attempt to turn it around.According to a new Bloomberg report, Nokia now has a few options to save its mobile network business, and one of them is to simply get rid of it. The Finnish company reportedly had discussions with advisers about different scenarios and is considering various solutions like selling some or all of the business, merge with a competitor, or completely spinning off the business.
While a decision hasn’t been made it, multiple players in the market expressed their willingness to acquire Nokia’s mobile networks assets. One of these players is Samsung, which is looking to gain a solid foothold in the telecom infrastructure. A Nokia spokesperson offered a statement to Bloomberg that doesn’t really say much about the state of its mobile networks business.
The business has made significant progress this year both on right-sizing its cost-base while protecting our product roadmap and winning new deals with new customers and increasing share with existing customers. Nokia is focused on ensuring that Mobile Networks is positioned to serve its customers building the best performing networks, investing in its portfolio and creating value for Nokia’s shareholders.
Nokia’s mobile networks assets are valued at about $10 billion, which is a very small sum for a giant like Samsung. However, at this time, a representative for Samsung declined to comment, which makes sense considering that Nokia hasn’t yet made any decisions regarding its mobile networks business.
Although Nokia has had some success rolling out 5G infrastructure for multiple carriers, demand from network operators declined lately, which is why the Finnish company is now looking not just for a solution to making its mobile networks business profitable again, but also for new business opportunities that don’t rely heavily on building networks for carriers.
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