Nokia Is Cutting Up To 10,000 Jobs to Boost 5G Investment
The stock, which has been a favourite among retail investors in recent months.
The stock, which has been a favourite among retail investors in recent months.
Nokia has unveiled plans to axe up to 10,000 jobs as part of a €600 million cost-cutting program aimed at boosting investment in 5G.
The telecom-equipment maker said resetting its cost base would allow it to invest in research and development and long-term growth areas, including 5G, cloud technologies and digital infrastructure.
The stock, which has been a favourite among retail investors and Reddit users in recent months, edged 0.5% higher in premarket trading, while the Finnish-listed shares rose 0.6% on Tuesday.
The company said it expects to lower its cost base by around €600 million by the end of 2023. As part of the restructuring, Nokia said its global workforce would be reduced from 90,000 to between 80,000 and 85,000 employees over the next two years. The company maintained its 2021 outlook.
The U.S.-listed shares are up 10% year-to-date but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The shares climbed 55% in the space of three days at the end of January, prompting the company to release a statement saying it could not explain the rally. The stock has since retreated 52%.
Aside from the volatility, Nokia’s fourth-quarter earnings were stronger-than-expected, driven by 5G margin expansion. Nokia and its Nordic rival Ericsson have benefited from a number of western countries banning China’s Huawei from 5G networks on national security grounds.
However, the Finnish company said its rate of converting its 4G footprint into 5G in 2020 was affected by shortfalls in China and North America. It also lost out to Samsung on a $6.6 billion deal with Verizon. Revenue is expected to fall for a second consecutive year in 2021, Nokia said, citing market share loss and price erosion in North America.
Looking ahead. When Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark, who took charge in August last year, unveiled a new strategy in October, he promised to do “whatever it takes” to lead in 5G. The company’s restructuring plan is evidence of that. After falling behind, Nokia needs to start picking up market share to challenge the likes of Ericsson and Huawei.
Nokia’s capital markets day on Thursday will be the next major event for investors to closely monitor, as Lundmark sets out his long-term strategy and financial outlook. JPMorgan Cazenove analysts said Nokia was likely to come across as confident of turnaround potential. But they said the company was unlikely to “raise the bar significantly” with mid-to-long-term guidance, leaving upside potential if the turnaround proceeds better than expectations.
They rated the stock ‘neutral’ with a target price of $4.30. “We see no reason to turn bullish ahead of the day as we think the turnaround is going to take time,” they said.
Lundmark’s words again were clear on Tuesday as he said “in those areas where we choose to compete, we will play to win.” Words are one thing, it’s now time for action.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
An original watercolour illustration for the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1997 — the first book in J.K. Rowling’s hit series—could sell for US$600,000 at a Sotheby’s auction this summer.
The illustration is headlining a June 26 sale in New York that will also feature big-ticket items from the collection of the late Dr. Rodney P. Swantko, a surgeon and collector from Indiana, including manuscripts by poet Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes books
The Harry Potter illustration, which introduced the young wizard character to the world, is expected to sell for between US$400,000 to US$600,000, which would make it the highest-priced item ever sold related to the Harry Potter world. This is the second time the illustration has been sold, however—it was on the auction block at Sotheby’s in London in 2001, where it achieved £85,750 (US$107,316).
The artist of the illustration, Thomas Taylor, was 23 years old at the time and a graduate student working at a children’s bookshop. According to Sotheby’s, Taylor took a “professional commission from an unknown author to visualise a unique wizarding world,” Sotheby’s said in a news release. He depicted Harry Potter boarding the train to Hogwarts on platform9 ¾ platform, and the illustration became the “universal image” of the Harry Potter series, Sotheby’s said.
“It is exciting to see the painting that marks the very start of my career, decades later and as bright as ever! It takes me back to the experience of reading Harry Potter for the first time—one of the first people in the world to do so—and the process of creating what is now an iconic image,” Taylor said in the release.
Meanwhile, to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s For Annie , 1849, Sotheby’s recently reunited the autographed manuscript of the poem with the author’s home, Poe Cottage, in the Bronx.
The cottage is where the author lived with his wife, Virginia, and mother-in-law, Maria Clemm, from 1846 until he died in 1849. The manuscript, also from the Swantko collection, will remain at the home until it is offered at auction at Sotheby’s on June 26 with an estimate between US$400,000 and US$600,000.
Poe Cottage, preserved and overseen by the Bronx County Historical Society, is home to many of the author’s famous works, including Eureka , 1948, and Annabel Lee , 1927.
“To reunite the For Annie manuscript with the Poe Cottage nearly two centuries after it was first composed brought to life literary history for a truly special and unique occasion,” Richard Austin , Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, said in a news release.
For Annie was one of Poe’s most important compositions, and was addressed to Nancy “Annie” L. Richmond, one of the several women Poe pursued after his wife Viriginia’s death from tuberculosis in 1847.
In a letter to Richmond herself, Poe proclaimed For Annie was his best work: “I think the lines For Annie much the best I have ever written.”
The poem was composed in 1849, only months before Poe’s death, Sotheby’s said in the piece, Poe highlights the romantic comfort he feels from a woman named Annie while simultaneously grappling with the darkness of death, with lines like “And the fever called ‘living’ is conquered at last.”
In the margins of the manuscript are the original handwritten instructions by Nathaniel P. Willis, co-editor of the New York Home Journal, where Poe published other poems such as The Raven and submitted For Annie on April 20, 1849.
Willis added Poe’s name in the top right and instructions about printing and presenting the poem on the side. The poem was also published in the Boston Weekly that same month.
Another piece of literary history included in the Swantko sale could surpass US$1 million. Conan Doyle’s autographed manuscript of the Sherlock Holmes tale The Sign of Four , 1889, is estimated to achieve between US$800,000 and US$1.2 million.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.