Nokia Profit Plunges, But Expectations Boost Stock

April 17th, 2009

Nokia on Thursday reported its worst quarterly profit in more than a decade. Nevertheless, the cell-phone maker’s shares rallied in the wake of optimism expressed by CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.The Finnish company said its profit declined to 122 million euros (US$160.7 million), from 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion) a year earlier. Sales fell 27 percent.

Nokia’s Devices & Services unit saw net sales decline 33 percent year-on-year to 6.2 billion euros (US$8.2 billion). Still, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, one of its flagship devices, sold 2.6 million units in the quarter and more than three million since it launched in late November. But its services division saw a five percent decline over the same period last year.

Nokia remains the largest mobile-device maker in the world with a market share of 37 percent in this year’s first quarter. However, that’s down from 39 percent in the year-ago period. Nokia expects industry sales to continue to decline this year, estimating a 10 percent overall slide from 2008.

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