Ericsson loses No. 3 spot to Siemens
By Reuters
April 26, 2001, 10:20 a.m. PT
STOCKHOLM, Sweden--The problems facing Swedish telecommunications-equipment maker Ericsson were underlined on Thursday when the company lost its title of the world's third-largest mobile phone maker to Germany's Siemens.
Siemens said it sold 6.9 million mobile phones in the January through March period against Ericsson's 6.2 million units.
Ericsson last week reported a 4.9 billion crown ($482.8 million) pretax loss for the first quarter and warned it would have a similar deficit in the second quarter. It is cutting some 22,000 jobs or one fifth of its work force to reduce costs.
"Siemens has for the first time taken the third position on the world market," the German company said in a statement.
No one at Ericsson was immediately available for comment.
The world's leader in mobile phones is Finland's Nokia, which approaches a 40 percent market share, followed by Motorola of the United States.
Analysts said Siemens' climb is more a question of prestige than of economic importance.
"Whether someone is second, third or fourth in a ranking is not really important. What is important is market share, and we already knew that Ericsson has been losing it," said Gunnar Andersson, an analyst at Handelsbanken in Stockholm.
Ericsson has recently said its market share fell to 7 percent to 8 percent in the first quarter from around 10 percent at the end of last year.
The company is fighting back however, saying on Tuesday it would join forces with Japanese consumer-electronics group Sony to make mobile phones.
The joint venture, which is to start Oct. 1, is expected to help Ericsson recapture some market share either later this year or in 2002, Handelsbanken's Andersson said.
Moody's Investors Service on Thursday lowered Ericsson's senior debt credit rating two notches to "A3" after the company reported its first loss from operations in nine years in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg News.
Story Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
