Nokia cuts profitability target, sees slower 2007
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The world's top cellphone  maker Nokia on Tuesday cut its profit margin forecasts for the  next two years and joined market analysts in forecasting slower  growth for the global mobile phone market in 2007.
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The world's biggest mobile handset  maker, Nokia , repeated on Monday it expects the  cellphone market to grow overall by up to 10 percent in 2007.
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Amid increasing competition in a fickle cell phone market, Motorola Inc. expects to report a loss for its mobile devices business in 2007 and now estimates that second quarter sales will be lower than expected.
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(InfoWorld) - In an extension of a cost-cutting program it began in January, Motorola said Wednesday it would lay off 4,000 more workers. The move will help the company to save $600 million annually starting in 2008, including additional money-saving measures like prioritizing its investments, continuing discretionary-spending controls, cutting general and administrative expenses, and site rationalization. Although it trails only Nokia in sales of wireless handsets, Motorola has struggled to translate its sales into profits. The company began this restructuring program after watching its profit drop sharply, from $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005 toÂ $624 million for the fourth quarter of 2006. The results were even worse for the first quarter of 2007, as Motorola posted a loss of $366 million compared to its profit of $849 million for the same period a year ago. In a search for change,Â the company replaced its CFO in March. At that time, chief executive Ed Zander blamed the problems on dropping prices for low-end cell phones, and Motorola's decision to give up market share instead of entering a price war with competing vendors. Also on Wednesday, Motorola said it would finish making the 3,500 job cuts it had previously announced by June 30, contributing to an estimated $400 million in annual savings. The restructuring will also incur its own costs. Motorola will subtract a one-time charge of $300 million from its savings, to pay for severance packages and other costs of the workforce reductions. "Today's actions are an update to the commitment we made during our first-quarter earnings conference call -- to drive out additional costs -- and a continuation of the plan we announced in January," Motorola'sÂ CFO Tom Meredith said in a release. Meredith promised the cuts would not distract Motorola from keeping its focus on long-term plans in customer service and support, product quality and research and development. Â
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Nokia , the world's top cellphone maker, said on Tuesday it plans to close its plant in Bochum, Germany, by mid-2008 and may cut up to 2,300 staff as it moves production to lower-cost regions.
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Palm Inc.  cut second-quarter profit and revenue forecasts on Monday, blaming a delay in shipping its new Treo 750 smartphone in the United States.
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Nokia Corp., the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said Tuesday it plans to lay off "a few hundred" research and development workers globally, including up to 250 in Finland, in a move to cut costs.
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(InfoWorld) - Palm Inc. has lowered its financial forecast for the current quarter because of delays in bringing its latest Treo smartphone to market. Palm on Monday lowered its revenue forecast for its fiscal 2007 second quarter, which ends Dec. 1, to a range of US$390 million to $395 million from an estimate made Sept. 21 of $430 million to $450 million. It also pared its earnings forecast to a range of $0.10 to $0.11 per share from the earlier estimate of $0.15 to $0.18. Not counting special items, the estimate has been trimmed to $0.15 to $0.16 a share, from an earlier $0.20 to $0.23. Although its line of smartphones is selling well and the new Treo 750v introduced in Europe is popular, Palm hasn't been able to get the Treo 750 introduced in the U.S. as planned, according to the company. "Our Q2 FY07 revenue will be constrained by a delay in certification of a key product. We now expect to start shipping the Treo 750 for the U.S. market early in Q3 FY07," Palm President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan said in a prepared statement. Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) waited until the market closed Monday to announce the news. After closing for the day at $15.37, about three hours later its stock had fallen by $0.64 in after-hours trading.
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Palm Inc.  cut its  second-quarter profit and revenue forecasts on Monday, blaming  a delay in shipping its new Treo 750 smartphone in the United  States.
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia Corp., the world's top handset maker, said on Thursday it plans to reshuffle 700 employees over the next few months, citing a need to improve its focus and efficiency. Nokia will try to move some employees into new positions in the company, while others could take voluntary severance packages, said Arja Suominen, vice president of communications. She said she did not know many employees would be laid off, although the company will study the shuffle. Those affected are 360 employees in Nokia's Enterprise Solutions business group; 140 in the Software Platforms area of its Technology Platforms unit; 130 who deal with the company's global IT operations; and 30 in Customer and Market Operations. It wasn't clear where the remaining 40 employees work, although Nokia said the changes would affect a maximum of 700 workers. Nokia said 340 of those staff affected are based in Finland. Nokia employs 68,000 worldwide. Nokia said its Enterprise Solutions division would take a sharper focus on markets where there is a greater return on investment. Nokia posted losses for the division in every quarter in fiscal 2006, including an operating loss of â¬64 million (US$83 million) in the fourth quarter. "It's very clear we will need to make that business profitable," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, president and CEO of Nokia, referring to the enterprise division. "We're looking at different options in order to do that." He spoke during a press conference at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on Monday and didn't hint at the cuts announced on Thursday. Nokia said it also wanted greater efficiency from the R&D (research and development) efforts of its Technology Platforms unit. Nokia has suffered declining sales in North America while the average selling price of its models has also fallen. However, profits and revenue have remained strong, and the company reported a 19 percent increase in net profit for its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2006, over a year prior, up to â¬1.3 billion. Â  Nancy Gohring in Barcelona contributed to this report.
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Nokia has bowed out of the ringtone market following poor sales from its Club Nokia website. Its exit should also smooth relationships with mobile network operators which think that their hardware providers
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Analysts predict growth in mobile phone sales will drop below 10 percent this year.
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Best Buy Co Inc  cut its fiscal 2008 profit outlook on Friday and said it expects its 2007 fourth-quarter sales to miss its own target on lower-than-expected January sales growth, sending its shares down 4.5 percent.
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Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world's largest  cell phone maker, expects replacement sales of cell phones to  continue gaining share of the total market in 2007, it said in  its filing with U.S. officials on Monday.
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Mobile phone infrastructure firm Ericsson sees worse than expected quarterly results and lowers its forecasts for 2007.
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Sony Corp. on Thursday cut its operating  profit estimate for this business year by 31 percent, citing  sharply falling prices of televisions, DVD recorders and other  key products and weak demand for chips.
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Nokia Oyj, the world&#39;s largest mobile- phone maker, said profit may drop for a second straight quarter after reporting a 20 percent decline in third-quarter earnings as it cut prices in a bid to regain market share.