Ever since my adolescence when I picked up a Time Life Book about Lapland during a non-studious moment in study hall and began looking at the woundrous photographs contained therein of the beautiful, wild countryside of the Scandinavian far north, I have had a romantic notion of Scandinavia with its Lap People, reindeer, lemmings, summer light and winter darkness, Bergman films, and epic literature. It was, then, foreordained that I would eventually become a shareholder of the most vibrant, dynamic companies in Scandinavian history, Nokia and Ericsson.
Scandinavian countries continuously appear at the top of polls ranking the best places to do business in the world because of the special culture of honesty and intolerance of personal corruption, founded, no doubt, upon the sturdy virtues of the region's Lutheranism, which includes a strong sense of humility and of man's place in the universe. This special culture of honesty and integrity is so obviously ingrained in the way Scandinavian companies act in all manners of business. Sweden and Finland are leading the world in the advancement of telecommunications technology and services, and Nokia and Ericsson have fertilized both countries with the talent and desire to excel in all things related to the wireless data industry. These realities, combined with my own personal affinity for the peoples of this world I have never seen, have motivated me to seek out other Swedish and Finnish companies in the wireless telecommunications industry as prospective investments, as they become available to U.S. investors through U.S. stock listings. I believe great opportunity lies here for American investors who can shed their North American provincialism and view the wireless telecommunications industry in all of its truly global enormity and splendour; and also accept that the U.S. is a follower, not a leader, in this particular industry of high technology--and may forever be so.
I am therefore creating and annointing this thread for the purpose of discussing investment opportunities in companies related to the Scandinavian wireless telecommunications industry--epsecially those available on U.S. stock exchanges. As a starting point, I will mention the few names of such Scandinavian companies I am aware of which meet this listing criteria that a potential American investor may consider. In addition to Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Ericsson NasdaqNM:ERICY), they are: CellPoint (currently OTC:BB CLPT; hopefully moving to Nasdaq soon--thanks to Tero for mentioning this one), a company offering a wireless technology based positioning service; Netcom (NasdaqNM:NECS), a leading Scandinavian telecommunications company with operations that extend to the Baltic region and Poland, which is deploying CellPoint's service; and Sonera (NasdaqNM:SNRA), Finland's leading datacommunications company. I believe that other Scandinavian companies may be accessible to U.S. investors currently or will be in the near future. If anyone knows of any companies along this theme, please bring them to my attention here. |
