History
The company was created as the result of a joint venture between Siemens Communications division (minus its Enterprise business unit) and Nokia's Network Business Group. The formation of the company was publicly announced on 19 June 2006. Nokia Siemens Networks was officially launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2007. Nokia Siemens Networks then began full operations on 1 April 2007 and has its headquarters in Espoo, Greater Helsinki, Finland. According to Siemens, Siemens only retain a non-controlling financial interest in NSN, with the day-to-day operations residing with Nokia.
In January 2008 Nokia Siemens Networks acquired Israeli company Atrica, a company that builds carrier-class Ethernet transport systems for metro networks. The official release did not disclose terms, however they are thought to be in the region of $100 million. In February 2008 Nokia Siemens Networks acquired Apertio, a Bristol UK-based mobile network customer management tools provider, for €140 million. With this acquisition Nokia Siemens Networks gained customers in the subscriber management area including Orange, T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone and Hutchison 3G. On 19 July 2010, Nokia Siemens Networks announced it would acquire the wireless-network equipment division of Motorola. The acquisition was completed on 29 April 2011 for US $975 million in cash. As part of the transaction approximately 6,900 employees transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks.
On 23 November 2011, Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it would refocus its business on mobile broadband equipment, the fastest-growing segment of the market. This refocus resulted in the restructuring of the company and the planned reduction of head count by 17,000 employees. The plan would reduce the company’s work force by 23 percent from its 2011 level of 74,000, and would help the company trim annual operating expenses by $1.35 billion by the end of 2013.
After the restructuring process, Nokia Siemens Networks has brought in a positive turn around to its businesses. The bottom line and operating margins have risen to ~10% levels which is a significant shift from the earlier sub-zero margins, with positive cash flows for the last six quarters.
Read more about this topic: Nokia Siemens Networks
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)