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This article is about the Finnish telecommunications corporation. For the town in Finland, see Nokia, Finland . For other uses, see Nokia (disambiguation) . For the wrestler known as "Noki-A", see Mika Akino
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj in Finnish and Nokia Abp in Swedish,[5] referred to as Nokia)[a] is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in . Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, in the Helsinki metropolitan area,[3] but the company's actual roots are in the Tampere region of Pirkanmaa.[6] In , Nokia employed approximately 92,000 people[7] across over 100 countries, did business in more than 130 countries, and reported annual revenues of around &#;23 billion.[4] Nokia is a public limited company listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki and New York Stock Exchange.[8] It was the world's 415th-largest company measured by revenues, according to the Fortune Global 500, having peaked at 85th place in .[9] It is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.[10][11]
The company has operated in various industries over the past 150 years. It was founded as a pulp mill and had long been associated with rubber and cables, but since the s has focused on large-scale telecommunications infrastructure, technology development, and licensing.[12] Nokia made significant contributions to the mobile telephony industry, assisting in the development of the GSM, 3G, and LTE standards. For a decade beginning in , Nokia was the largest worldwide vendor of mobile phones and smartphones. In the later s, however, Nokia suffered from a series of poor management decisions, and soon saw its share of the mobile market drop sharply.
After a partnership with Microsoft and Nokia's subsequent market struggles,[13][14][15] in Microsoft bought Nokia's mobile business,[16][17] incorporating it as Microsoft Mobile.[18] After the sale, Nokia began to focus more on its telecommunications infrastructure business and on Internet of things technologies, marked by the divestiture of its Here mapping division and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, including its Bell Labs research organization.[19] The company then also experimented with virtual reality and digital health, the latter through the purchase of Withings.[20][21][22][23] The Nokia brand returned to the mobile and smartphone market in through a licensing arrangement with HMD.[24] Nokia continues to be a major patent licensor for most large mobile vendors.[25] As of , Nokia is the world's third-largest network equipment manufacturer.[26]
The company was viewed with national pride by Finns, as its mobile business made it by far the largest worldwide company and brand from Finland.[27] At its peak in , Nokia accounted for 4% of the country's GDP, 21% of total exports, and 70% of the Nasdaq Helsinki market capital.[28][29]
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Rolls of toilet paper produced by Nokia in the s, Vapriikki Museum Centre, TampereNokia's history dates from , when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a pulp mill on the shores of the Tammerkoski rapids near the town of Tampere, Finland (then in the Russian Empire).[6] A second pulp mill was opened in near the neighboring town of Nokia, where there were better hydropower resources.[6] In , Idestam, together with a friend Leo Mechelin, formed a shared company and called it Nokia Ab (in Swedish, Nokia Company being the English equivalent), after the site of the second pulp mill.
Idestam retired in , making Mechelin the company's chairman; he expanded into electricity generation by , which Idestam had opposed. In , Suomen Gummitehdas (Finnish Rubber Works), a rubber business founded by Eduard Polón, established a factory near the town of Nokia and used its name.
In , in the now independent Finland, Nokia Ab entered into a partnership with the Finnish Rubber Works and Kaapelitehdas (the Cable Factory), all now jointly under the leadership of Polón. The rubber company grew rapidly when it moved to the Nokia region in the s to take advantage of the electricity supply, and the cable company soon did too.
Nokia at the time also made respirators for both civilian and military use, from the s well into the early s.[30]
LV 317M military radio in the Hämeenlinna artillery museumIn , the three companies &#; Nokia, Kaapelitehdas, and Finnish Rubber Works &#; merged to create a new Nokia Corporation, restructured into four major businesses: forestry, cable, rubber, and electronics. In the early s, it entered the networking and radio industries. Nokia started making military equipment for Finland's defence forces (Puolustusvoimat), such as the Sanomalaite M/90 communicator in , and the M61 gas mask first developed in the s. Nokia was now also making professional mobile radios, switches, capacitors and chemicals.
After Finland's trade agreement with the Soviet Union in the s, Nokia expanded into the Soviet market. It soon widened trade, ranging from automatic exchanges to robotics among others; by the late s, the Soviet Union became a major market for Nokia, yielding high profits. The U.S. government became increasingly concerned of the possible export of items it deemed as high technology, such as digital exchanges, to the Soviet Union in the s. This led to Finland entering the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls in .[31] This was a demonstration of Finland balancing between both sides, as it was neutral during the Cold War.
In , Kari Kairamo became CEO and transformed the company's businesses. By this time, Finland was becoming what has been called "Nordic Japan".[by whom?] Under his leadership, Nokia acquired many companies, including television maker Salora in , followed by Swedish electronics and computer maker Luxor AB in , and French television maker Oceanic in . This made Nokia the third-largest television manufacturer of Europe (behind Philips and Thomson). The existing brands continued to be used until the end of the television business in .
Nokia Mikko 3 minicomputer, Mobira Cityman 450,In , Nokia acquired Schaub-Lorenz, the consumer operations of Germany's Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL), which included its "Schaub-Lorenz" and "Graetz" brands. It was originally part of American conglomerate International & Telegraph (ITT), and after the acquisition products were sold under the "ITT Nokia" brand, despite SEL's sale to Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE), the predecessor of Alcatel, in .
In , Kaapelitehdas discontinued production of cables at its Helsinki factory after 44 years, effectively shutting down the sub-company.
On 1 April , Nokia bought the Information Systems division of Ericsson,[32] which had originated as the Datasaab computer division of Swedish aircraft and car manufacturer Saab. Ericsson Information Systems made Alfaskop terminals, typewriters, minicomputers and Ericsson-branded IBM compatible PCs. The merger with Nokia's Information Systems division&#;which since had a line of personal computers called MikroMikko&#;resulted in the name Nokia Data.
Various Mobira phones on display in a museum in Helsinki, Finland. The Mobira Senator (first from the left), was one of the first phones compatible with the NMT-network. It weighed around 9.8 kg (22 lb).Nokia also acquired Mobira, a mobile radio manufacturer that had been established in a joint venture with Salora Oy in , which became the foundation of its future mobile business. In , Mobira launched the Nordic Mobile (NMT) service, the world's first international cellular network and the first to allow international roaming. In , Mobira launched the Mobira Senator car , Nokia's first mobile . At that time, the company had no interest in producing mobile phones, which the executive board regarded as akin to James Bond's gadgets: improbably futuristic and niche devices. After all these acquisitions, Nokia's revenue base became US$2.7 billion.
CEO Kairamo killed himself on 11 December .
Mobira 800-NDB non-directional beacon located in the Finnish Air Force signals museum
Nokia MAC laser rangefinder previously used by Finnish coastal artillery
Hämeenlinna artillery museum display containing fire control officer with Nokia artillery calculator in Finnish artillery battalion command post
Late s MikroMikko 4 TT m216 desktop computer in the Museum of Technology, Helsinki, Finland
ITT Nokia television with an ITT Nokia VCR (ITT/SEL)
A Mobira pager
Following Simo Vuorilehto's appointment as CEO, a major restructuring was planned. With 11 groups within the company, Vuorilehto divested industrial units he deemed as un-strategic. Nokian Tyres (Nokian Renkaat), a tyre producer originally formed as a division of Finnish Rubber Works in , split away from Nokia Corporation in . Two years later, in , Finnish Rubber Works followed suit. In , Nokia sold its computer division, Nokia Data, to UK-based International Computers Limited (ICL), the precursor of Fujitsu Siemens. Investors thought of this as financial trouble and Nokia's stock price sank as a result. Finland was now also experiencing its worst recession in living memory, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a major customer, made matters worse.
Vuorilehto quit in January and was replaced by Jorma Ollila, who had been the head of the mobile business from and advised against selling that division. Ollila decided to turn Nokia into a 'telecom-oriented' company, and he eventually got rid of divisions like the power business. This strategy proved to be very successful and the company grew rapidly in the following years. Nokia's operating profit went from negative in to $1 billion in and almost $4 billion by .[33]
Nokia's first fully portable mobile after the Mobira Senator was the Mobira Cityman 900 in . Nokia assisted in the development of the GSM mobile standard in the s, and developed the first GSM network with Siemens, the predecessor to Nokia Siemens Network. The world's first GSM call was made by Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri on 1 July , using Nokia equipment on the 900 MHz band network built by Nokia and operated by Radiolinja. In November , the Nokia launched, making it the first commercially available GSM mobile .[34]
Salora Oy as a Nokia subsidiary ended in when the division was merged into Nokia-Mobira Oy. The brand continued to be used for televisions until .
On 12 June , Nokia announced the sale of its television business to Canada/Hong Kong-based Semi-Tech Corporation.[35] The television manufacturing plant in Germany closed down in September . The sale included a factory in Turku, and the rights to use the Nokia, Finlux, Luxor, Salora, Schaub-Lorenz and Oceanic brands until the end of .[36] Some of these brands were later sold to other companies.
Nokia was the first to launch digital satellite receivers in the UK, announced in March .[37] In August Nokia introduced the first digital satellite receiver with Common Interface (CI) support.[38] In Nokia became the chosen supplier to produce the world's first digital terrestrial television set-top boxes by British Digital Broadcasting (BDB), which was eventually launched as ONdigital.[39]
A Nokia Mediamaster set-top boxIn October , Nokia overtook Motorola to become the best-selling mobile brand,[40] and in December manufactured its 100 millionth mobile .[41] A major reason why Nokia grew against its main competitors Motorola and Ericsson was that it managed to cater to the consumer youth market and fashion-oriented consumers, most significantly with the Nokia and handsets which featured a large range of colourful and replaceable back-covers called Xpress-on.[42][43] One of the earliest fashion phones in , from Swiss watchmaker Swatch, was based on Nokia's 101 handset.[44] The company would also form the Vertu division, creating luxury mobile handsets.
Nokia claimed in April its 447Xav and 447K monitors to be the first with stereo speakers and a subwoofer.[45] In May Nokia introduced their first wireless LAN products.[46] In January ViewSonic acquired Nokia Display Products, the division making displays for personal computers.[47] On 26 April Nokia partnered with Telefónica to supply DSL modems and routers in Spain.[48]
In , Nokia established a joint venture with Brazilian electronics firm Gradient where they were granted the license to manufacture variants of Nokia mobile phones locally under the Nokia and Gradient brand names.[49]
In , Nokia co-founded Symbian Ltd. led by Psion to create a new operating system for PDAs and smart mobile phones as a successor of EPOC32. They released the Nokia Communicator running Symbian OS in and later that year created the Symbian Series 60 platform, later introducing it with their first camera , the Nokia . Both Nokia and Symbian eventually became the largest smartphone hardware and software maker respectively, and in February Nokia became the largest shareholder of Symbian Ltd.[50] Nokia acquired the entire company in June and then formed the Symbian Foundation as its successor.[51]
In alone, the company had sales revenue of $20 billion making $2.6 billion profit. By Nokia employed over 55,000 people,[52] and had a market share of 30% in the mobile market, almost twice as large as its nearest competitor, Motorola.[53] The company was operating in 140 countries as of . It was reported at the time that some people believed Nokia to be a Japanese company.[54] Between and , Nokia's turnover increased fivefold, from &#;6.5 billion to &#;31 billion.[55] Meanwhile, a Reader's Digest survey held near end showed that Nokia was the "most trusted brand in Europe", ranking better than Sony, Canon and Nivea.[56]
A collection of Nokia mobile phones from the sThe company would then be known as a successful and innovative maker of camera phones. The Nokia / was the first camera on sale in North America in . In April Nokia partnered with German camera optics maker Carl Zeiss AG.[57] That same month Nokia introduced the Nseries, which would become its flagship line of smartphones for the next six years.[58] The Nokia N95 was introduced in September became highly successful and was also awarded as "best mobile imaging device" in Europe in .[59] Its successor the N82 featured a xenon flash,[60] which helped it win the award of "best mobile imaging" device in Europe in .[61] The N93 in was known for its specialized camcorder and the twistable design that switches between clamshell and a camcorder-like position.[62] They were also well known for the N8 with a high-resolution 12-megapixel sensor in ; the 808 PureView in with a 41-megapixel sensor; and the Lumia 920 flagship in which implemented advanced PureView technologies.[63]
Nokia was one of the pioneers of mobile gaming due to the popularity of Snake, which came pre-loaded on many products. In , Nokia attempted to break into the handheld gaming market with the N-Gage.[64] Nokia's head of entertainment and media, Ilkka Raiskinen, once quoted "Game Boy is for 10-year-olds",[65] stating that N-Gage is more suited to a mature audience. However, the device was a failure, unable to challenge the dominant market leader Nintendo. Nokia attempted to revive N-Gage as a platform for their S60 smartphones, which eventually launched in .[66]
In Q1 , Nokia's mobile handset market share steeply dropped to 28.9%, down from 34.6% a year earlier.[67] However, by the company was steadily gaining again[68][69] and in Q4 reached its all-time high figure of 40.4%.[70] Its smartphone market share in that quarter was 51%.[71] Nokia was the largest vendor at the time in all regions bar North America.[72]
Nokia launched mobile TV trials in in Finland with content provided by public broadcaster Yle. The services are based on the DVB-H standard. It could be viewed with the widescreen Nokia smartphone with a special accessory enabling it to receive DVB-H signals.[73] Nokia partnered with Arqiva and O2 to launch trials in the UK in September .[74]
In , Nokia developed a Linux-based operating system called Maemo, which shipped that year on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.
On 1 June , Jorma Ollila became the company's chairman and retired as CEO, replaced by Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.[75]
A flagship Nokia store in São Paulo, Brazil inIn August , Nokia introduced Ovi, an umbrella name for the company's new Internet services which included the N-Gage platform and the Nokia Music Store.[76] The Ovi Store faced stiff competition against Apple's App Store when it was introduced in .[77]
In October , Nokia announced the Nokia XpressMusic, the first device to ship with the new touch-centric S60 5th Edition, also known as Symbian^1, the first iteration of the platform since the creation of the Symbian Foundation. In November Nokia announced it would end mobile sales in Japan because of low market share.[78] Nokia's global mobile market share peaked in at 38.6 percent.[79] The same year, Nokia announced the acquisition of Trolltech and its Qt software development.[80] Qt was a central part of Nokia's strategy until , and it was eventually sold in .[81]
Nokia briefly returned to the computer market with the Booklet 3G netbook in August .
A Nokia Communicator () next to a Nokia E7 Communicator ()In late and in , the music-focused Xseries and consumer-focused Cseries were introduced respectively.[82] In April Nokia introduced its next flagship mobile device, the Nokia N8, which would be the first to run on Symbian.[83] However it was delayed for many months which tarnished the company's image,[84] especially after the failure of its previous flagship N97 and tougher competition from Apple and the rising Google. On 10 September , Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was fired as CEO and it was announced that Stephen Elop from Microsoft would take Nokia's CEO position, becoming the first non-Finnish director in Nokia's history.[85] It was claimed that investors pressed Nokia's board to recruit an outsider to shake up management and break from the traditional "Nokia way".[86] Ollila had also announced that he would step down as Nokia chairman by .[87] On 11 March Nokia announced that it had paid Elop a $6 million signing bonus as "compensation for lost income from his prior employer", on top of his $1.4 million annual salary.[88]
The old Symbian OS became completely open-source in February .[89] However, in November it was announced that the Symbian Foundation was closing and that Nokia would take back control of the Symbian operating system under closed licensing.[90] By now Nokia was the only remaining company using the platform, along with carrier NTT DoCoMo in Japan, after both Samsung and Sony Ericsson moved to Android. Meanwhile, in for Nokia's Linux ambitions, Nokia collaborated with Intel to form the MeeGo project, after the merger of Nokia's own Maemo and Intel's Moblin.
Nokia's Symbian platform that had been the leading smartphone platform in Europe and Asia for many years was quickly becoming outdated and difficult for developers after the advent of iOS and Android. To counter this, Nokia planned to make their MeeGo Linux operating system, under development, the company's flagship on smartphones. Shortly after Elop's CEO tenure began, the Nokia board green-lit him the ability to change the company's mobile phones strategy, including changing operating systems.[91] Veteran Anssi Vanjoki, head of the smartphones division, left the company around this time.[92] His final appearance was at Nokia World when the Nokia E7-00 and other Symbian^3 devices were introduced.[93]
On 11 February , Nokia announced a "strategic partnership" with Microsoft, under which it would adopt Windows 7 as its primary operating system on smartphones, and integrate its services and platforms with its own, including Bing as search engine, and integration of Nokia Maps data into Bing Maps. Elop stated that Nokia chose not to use Android because of an apparent inability to "differentiate" its offerings, with critics also noting that his past ties to Microsoft may have also influenced the decision.[94][95][96] Although the MeeGo "Harmattan"-based N9 was met with a highly positive reception in , Nokia had already decided to end development on MeeGo and solely focus on its Microsoft partnership, although the CEO said that the N9's "innovations" will live on in the future,[97] which eventually made their way on the Asha platform in .[98] After the announcement of the Microsoft partnership, Nokia's market share deteriorated; this was due to demand for Symbian dropping when consumers realized Nokia's focus and attention would be elsewhere.[99]
The company posted a large loss for the second quarter of &#; only their second quarterly loss in 19 years.[100] Nokia's first Windows flagship was the Lumia 800, which arrived in November . Falling sales in , which were not being improved significantly with the Lumia line in , led to consecutive quarters of huge losses. By mid- the company's stock price fell below $2.[101][102] CEO Elop announced cost-cutting measures in June by shedding 10,000 employees by the end of the year and the closure of the Salo manufacturing plant.[103] The Finnish prime minister also announced that the government wouldn't subsidize the company from an emergency state fund.[104] Around this time Nokia started a new project codenamed "Meltemi", a platform for low-end smartphones.[105] With the Microsoft alliance and under Elop's management, Nokia also had a renewed focus on the North American market where Nokia phones were, in stark contrast to the rest of the world, almost irrelevant for many years.[106][107] This strategy began in January with the introduction of the Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone in partnership with U.S. carrier AT&T.[108]
In March , Nokia introduced a new corporate typeface called "Pure".[109] On 1 August , Nokia announced that it would adopt a new three-digit naming system for mobile products and stop using letters, effectively ending the Nseries, Eseries, and short-lived Cseries. That same day the Nokia 500 was introduced with the new system.[110] Nokia last used three-digit names on analogue phones in the s.[82]
When the Lumia 920 was announced in September , it was seen by the press as the first high-end Windows that could challenge rivals due to its advanced feature set. Elop said that the positive reaction to it had created a sense of hope and optimism in the company.[111] The company was also making gains in developing countries with its Asha series, which were selling strongly.[112] Although Nokia's smartphone sales and market share greatly increased throughout , including in the North American market,[113] it was still not enough to avoid financial losses.[114] Ollila stepped down as chairman on 4 May and was replaced by Risto Siilasmaa.[115]
Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia chairperson from toIn September , Nokia announced the sale of its mobile and devices division to Microsoft. The sale was positive for Nokia to avoid further negative financial figures, as well as for Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, who wanted Microsoft to produce more hardware and turn it into a devices and services company.[116] The Nokia chairperson, Risto Siilasmaa, described the deal as rationally correct (in the best interests of Nokia shareholders), but emotionally difficult[117] &#; experts agree that Nokia would have been in a cash crisis had it not sold the division to Microsoft.[118][117] Analysts believe that Ballmer pushed for the buyout because of fears that Nokia was close to adopting Android and abandoning their alliance with Microsoft.[119][120] Indeed, in January the Nokia X was introduced which ran on a customised version of Android. It was a surprising and somewhat odd launch coming just weeks away from the finalization of the Microsoft buyout.[121][122] Others, including Ballmer's successor Satya Nadella, felt that Microsoft thought merging their software teams with Nokia's hardware engineering and designs would "accelerate" growth of Windows .[123] The sale was completed in April , with Microsoft Mobile becoming the successor to Nokia's mobile devices division. Nokia also moved from its headquarters to another building complex located at Karaportti. At the time, Ballmer himself was retiring as Microsoft CEO and was replaced by Satya Nadella, who opposed the Nokia mobile phones purchase, along with chairman Bill Gates.[124] The purchased assets from Nokia were eventually written-off by Microsoft in .[125]
By , Nokia's global brand value according to Interbrand fell to 98th place,[126] a sharp slide from the 5th place it was in .[127] Nokia's downfall in the mobile market has had different explanations from analysts, with many split about the CEO's decision to abandon its in-house operating system and adopting Windows in .[128] Many researchers have concluded that Nokia suffered from deep internal rivalries within the management.[118][129][130][131] Former employees claimed that the management became so swollen by the early success that they grew complacent over time.[132][133] Some from the Symbian developing team have claimed that the company's upper management rejected hundreds of potential innovations during the s that they proposed, including entirely rewriting Symbian's code. One former Nokia employee claimed that the company was run as a "Soviet-style bureaucracy".[134]
Former Nokia plant in Bochum, Germany A Nokia advertising sign in Dublin, IrelandIn July , Nokia bought Siemens' stake in the Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture for $2.2 billion, turning it into a wholly owned subsidiary called Nokia Solutions and Networks,[135] until being rebranded as Nokia Networks soon after.[136] During Nokia's financial struggles, its profitable networking division with Siemens provided much of its income; thus, the purchase proved to be positive, particularly after the sale of its mobile devices unit.[137]
After the sale of its mobile devices division, Nokia focused on network equipment through Nokia Networks.[138]
In October , Nokia and China Mobile signed a US$970 million framework deal for delivery between and .[139]
On 17 November , Nokia Technologies head Ramzi Haidamus disclosed that the company planned to re-enter the consumer electronics business as an original design manufacturer, licensing in-house hardware designs and technologies to third-party manufacturers. Haidamus stated that the Nokia brand was "valuable" but "is diminishing in value, and that's why it is important that we reverse that trend very quickly, imminently".[140] The next day, Nokia unveiled the N1, an Android tablet manufactured by Foxconn, as its first product following the Microsoft sale.[141] Haidamus emphasized that devices released under these licensing agreements would be held to high standards in production quality, and would "look and feel just like Nokia built it".[12] Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri stated that the company planned to re-enter the mobile business in this manner in , following the expiration of its non-compete clause with Microsoft.[142]
According to Robert Morlino, the spokesman of Nokia Technologies, Nokia planned to follow the brand-licensing model rather than direct marketing of mobile devices due to the sale of its mobile devices division to Microsoft.[143] The company took aggressive steps to revitalize itself, evident through its hiring of software experts, testing of new products and seeking of sales partners.[144] On 14 July , CEO Rajeev Suri confirmed that the company would make a return to the mobile phones market in .[145]
On 28 July , Nokia announced OZO, a 360-degrees virtual reality camera, with eight 2K optical image sensors. The division behind the product, Nokia Technologies, claimed that OZO would be the most advanced VR film-making platform.[146] Nokia's press release stated that OZO would be "the first in a planned portfolio of digital media solutions," with more technological products expected in the future.[147] OZO was fully unveiled on 30 November in Los Angeles. The OZO, designed for professional use, was intended for retail for US$60,000;[148] however, its price was decreased by $15,000 prior to release,[149] and is listed on its official website as $40,000.[150]
Nokia office building in Markham, Ontario, Canada in &#; originally Alcatel-Lucent's office A Nokia Flexi Zone base transceiver station ()On 14 April , Nokia confirmed that it was in talks with the French telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent regarding a potential merger.[151] The next day, Nokia announced that it had agreed to purchase Alcatel-Lucent for &#;15.6 billion in an all-stock deal.[152] CEO Rajeev Suri felt that the purchase would give Nokia a strategic advantage in the development of 5G wireless technologies.[153][154] The acquisition created a stronger competitor to the rival firms Ericsson and Huawei,[155] whom Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent had surpassed in terms of total combined revenue in . Nokia shareholders hold 66.5% of the new combined company, while Alcatel-Lucent shareholders hold 33.5%. The Bell Labs division was to be maintained, but the Alcatel-Lucent brand would be replaced by Nokia.[152][156] In October , following approval of the deal by China's Ministry of Commerce, the merger awaited approval by French regulators.[157] Despite the initial intent of selling the submarine cable division separately, Alcatel-Lucent later declared that it would not.[158] The merger closed on 14 January ,[159] but was not complete until 3 November . From the acquisition, Nokia is now also the owner of the Alcatel Mobile brand, which continues to be licensed to TCL.
On 3 August , Nokia announced that it had reached a deal to sell its Here digital maps division to a consortium of BMW, Daimler AG and Volkswagen Group for &#;2.8 billion.[160] The deal closed on 3 December .[161]
On 26 April , Nokia announced its intent to acquire French connected health device maker Withings for US$191 million. The company was integrated into a new Digital Health unit of Nokia Technologies.[162][163] Nokia later wrote off the cost of the acquisition and in May the health unit was sold back to Éric Carreel, a Withings co-founder and former CEO.[164]
On 18 May , Microsoft Mobile sold its Nokia-branded feature business to HMD Global, a new company founded by former Nokia executive Jean-Francois Baril, and an associated factory in Vietnam to Foxconn's FIH Mobile subsidiary. Nokia subsequently entered into a long-term licensing deal to make HMD the exclusive manufacturer of Nokia-branded phones and tablets outside Japan, operating in conjunction with Foxconn. The deal also granted HMD the right to essential patents and featurephone software. HMD subsequently announced the Android-based Nokia 6 smartphone in January .[165][166] At Mobile World Congress, HMD additionally unveiled the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 smartphones, as well as a re-imagining of Nokia's classic feature .[167][168] Nokia has direct investments in the company,[169] and they do have some input in the new devices.
On 28 June , Nokia demonstrated for the first time a 5G-ready network.[170] In February Nokia carried out a 5G connection in Oulu, Finland using the 5GTF standard, backed by Verizon, on Intel architecture-based equipment.[171]
In July , Nokia and Xiaomi announced that they have signed a business collaboration agreement and a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross-license to each company's cellular standard-essential patents.[172] In that year, Nokia's brand value was ranked 188th by Brand Finance, a jump of 147 places from . Its rise was attributed to its health portfolio and new mobile phones developed by HMD Global.[173]
In January , Nokia signed a deal with NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile operator, to provide 5G wireless radio base stations in the country by .[174] Later that month, Nokia announced the ReefShark line of 5G chipsets, claiming that it triples bandwidth to 84 Gbit/s.[175] In March, Solidium, the investment arm of the Finnish Government, purchased a 3.3% stake in Nokia valued at &#;844 million.[176] In May, Nokia announced that it had acquired a California-based IoT startup, SpaceTime Insight.[177]
In January , the Canadian government announced that it would provide $40 million to support Nokia's research on 5G technology.[178] A study revealed that Nokia phones performed far better than rivals Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, and Huawei in updating to the latest version of Android. The study, made by Counterpoint Research, found that 96 percent of Nokia phones were either sent with or updated to the latest Android version since Pie was released in . Nokia's competitors were found to be all around roughly the 80 percent range.[179]
On 2 March , Nokia announced Pekka Lundmark as its new CEO.[180] Later that month, Nokia completed the acquisition of Elenion Technologies, a U.S.-based company focusing on silicon photonics technology to improve economics of advanced optical connectivity products.[181]
On 27 May , Sari Baldauf succeeded Risto Siilasmaa as chairwoman of the board of directors, and Kari Stadigh was appointed vice chair. In June, Nokia won a 5G contract worth approximately $450 million[182] from Taiwan Mobile to build out the telecom operator's next-generation network as the sole supplier.[183] In October, Nokia announced a contract with NASA to build a 4G mobile network for astronaut usage on the moon. The $14.1 million contract, through subsidiary Bell Labs, was expected to begin in .[184][185][186]
In , Flipkart collaborated with Nokia to market Nokia-branded consumer products in India. These included televisions, a laptop and a range of air conditioners.[187]
In April , Nokia announced that it would exit the Russian market following the country's invasion of Ukraine. The company stated that the decision would not affect its financial outlook as Russia accounted for less than 2% of Nokia's net sales in .[188]
In February , Nokia introduced a new logo for the first time in nearly 60 years[189] to change its brand identity as people still associated the previous logo with mobile phones.[190] The new logo was designed by Lippincott.[191]
In December , Nokia acquired Fenix Group to strengthen its wireless offering in the defense segment for an undisclosed amount.[192] In the same month, Nokia announced a &#;185 million deal with Lumine Group to carve out its device management business (inherited from Alcatel-Lucent's purchase of Motive, Inc.) and its service management business (formerly Mformation). The deal completed in April and involved the transfer of around 500 Nokia employees.[193][194]
In February , the company announced that it was accelerating its carbon neutrality target by 10 years to after having previously committed to cutting its carbon footprint across emissions scopes in half by from a baseline.[195]
In June , Nokia acquired Infinera for $2.3 billion.[196]
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Nokia is a julkinen osakeyhtiö (public joint-stock company) listed on the Nasdaq Nordic/Helsinki and New York stock exchanges.[8] Nokia has played a very large role in the economy of Finland,[197][198] and it is an important employer in the country, working with multiple local partners and subcontractors.[199] Nokia contributed 1.6% to Finland's GDP and accounted for about 16% of the country's exports in .[200]
Nokia comprises two business groups along with further subsidiaries and affiliated firms.
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Inside the Nokia Networks office in Munich, GermanyNokia Networks is Nokia Corporation's largest division. It is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and is the world's third-largest telecoms equipment manufacturer, measured by revenues (after Huawei and Cisco). In the USA it competes with Ericsson on building 5G networks for operators, while Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation were effectively banned.[201]
It has operations in around 150 countries.[202]
Nokia Networks provides wireless and fixed network infrastructure, communications and networks service platforms and professional services to operators and service providers.[203] It focuses on GSM, EDGE, 3G/W-CDMA, LTE and WiMAX radio access networks, supporting core networks with increasing IP and multiaccess capabilities and services.
The Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) brand identity was launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February as a joint venture between Nokia (50.1%) and Siemens (49.9%),[204] although it is now wholly owned by Nokia. In July , Nokia bought back all shares in Nokia Siemens Networks for a sum of US$2.21 billion and renamed it to Nokia Solutions and Networks, shortly thereafter changed to simply Nokia Networks.[205]
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Nokia office building in Tampere, FinlandNokia Technologies is a division of Nokia that develops consumer products and licenses technology including the Nokia brand.[206] Its focuses are imaging, sensing, wireless connectivity, power management and materials, and other areas such as the IP licensing program. It consists of three labs: Radio Systems Lab, in areas of radio access, wireless local connectivity and radio implementation; Media Technologies Lab, in areas of multimedia and interaction; and Sensor and Material Technologies Lab, in areas of advanced sensing solutions, interaction methods, nanotechnologies and quantum technologies. Nokia Technologies also provides public participation in its development through the Invent with Nokia program.[207] It was created in following a restructuring of Nokia Corporation.
In November , Nokia Technologies launched its first product, the Nokia N1 tablet computer.[208] In July , Nokia Technologies introduced a VR camera called OZO, designed for professional content creators and developed in Tampere, Finland. With its 8 synchronized shutter sensors and 8 microphones, the product can capture stereoscopic 3D video and spatial audio.[209][210]
On 31 August , Ramzi Haidamus announced he would be stepping down from his position as president of Nokia Technologies.[211] Brad Rodrigues, previously head of strategy and business development, assumed the role of interim president.[212] On 30 June , Gregory Lee, previously CEO of Samsung Electronics in North America, was appointed Nokia Technologies CEO and president.[213]
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Nokia Bell Labs is a research and scientific development company that was once the R&D arm of the American Bell System. It became a subsidiary of Nokia Corporation after the takeover of Alcatel-Lucent in .
In December , Nokia announced plans for a new research facility in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The relocation from the 80-year-old Bell Labs facility at Murray Hill, New Jersey is expected to occur before . The Murray Hill laboratories produced important innovations for AT&T Corp., Lucent Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia.[214]
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NGP Capital (formerly Nokia Growth Partners) is a global venture capital firm, focusing on investments in the growth stage "Internet of things" (IoT) and mobile technology companies.[215] NGP holds investments throughout the U.S., Europe, China and India. Their portfolio consists of companies in mobile technology including the sectors Connected Enterprise, Digital Health, Consumer IoT, and Connected Car. Following a $350 million funding for IoT companies in , NGP manages $1 billion worth of assets.[216]
Nokia had previously promoted innovation through venture sponsorships dating back to with Nokia Venture Partners, which was renamed BlueRun Ventures and spun off in .[217] Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) was founded in as a growth stage venture fund as a continuation of the early successes of Nokia Venture Partners. In , the company was renamed to NGP Capital.[218]
NGP's largest exits include GanJi, UCWeb, Whistle, Rocket Fuel, Swype, Summit Microelectronics and Netmagic.
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Nuage Networks is a venture providing software-defined networking solutions. It was formed by Alcatel-Lucent in to develop a software overlay for automating and orchestrating hybrid clouds.[219] It has been part of Nokia following their acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in .[220] Throughout Nuage sealed deals with Vodafone and Telefónica to provide its SD-WAN architecture to their servers.[221][222] BT had already been a client since .[223] A deal with China Mobile in January also used Nuage's software-defined networking technology for 2,000 public cloud servers at existing data centers in China,[224] and another in October with China Pacific Insurance Company.[225]
Goto HUAXUN to know more.
The company is based in Mountain View, California and the CEO is Sunil Khandekar.[226]
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Alcatel Mobile is a mobile brand owned by Nokia since . It has been licensed since to Chinese company TCL when it was under the ownership of Alcatel (later Alcatel-Lucent) in a contract until .
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HMD Global is a mobile company based in Espoo, Finland. The Nokia brand has been licensed by former Nokia employees who founded HMD Global and introduced Nokia-branded Android-based devices to the market in .[227] Nokia has no investment in the company but retains some input in the development of its devices.[228]
Nokia has 10.10% ownership in HMD Global after investing alongside Qualcomm and Google in . In the financial report, FIH Mobile disclosed they have a 14.38% ownership in HMD Global. Finnish Nokia owns 10.10% of HMD Global, while other investors include Google, Qualcomm, and others with an undisclosed share in HMD.
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Cable ship Stanelco in with Alcatel acquisition in Alcatel-Lucent ship, CS Lodbrog, in Port Keelung inAlcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is a provider of turnkey undersea network solutions. The business unit develops technology and offers installation services for optical submarine cable network links across the world's oceans.[229][230]
Previously, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, also became part of Nokia in . Nokia and ASN had added another cable ship to the fleet called, CS Ile d'Ouessant.[231] The CS Ile d&#;Ouessant was purchased in and was originally built in as the CS Toisa Warrior.[232] Additionally, in , Nokia and ASN requested two cable ships for the fleet, the CS Ile d'Yeu and CS Ile de Molène.[233]
Alcatel cable ship Ile-de-Batz in Alcatel cable ship ile de Sein inHere is a list of the cable-laying fleet from Alcatel (6), to Alcatel-Lucent (6[234] and 7), though Nokia (8):
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The key trends for Nokia are (as of the financial year ending December 31):[241][242][243]
Revenue (&#; bn) Net profit (&#; bn) Total assets (&#; bn) Employees 51.0 7.2 37.5 112,000 50.7 3.9 39.5 125,000 40.9 0.89 35.7 123,000 42.4 1.8 39.1 132,000 38.6&#;1.1
36.2 130,000 30.1&#;3.1
29.9 97,700 12.7&#;0.61
25.1 86,400 12.7 3.4 21.0 57,500 12.4 2.4 20.9 56,000 23.6&#;0.76
44.9 101,000 23.1&#;1.4
41.0 101,000 22.5&#;0.34
39.5 103,000 23.3 0.007 39.1 98,300 21.8&#;2.5
36.1 92,000 22.2 1.6 40.0 87,900 24.9 4.2 42.9 86,800 22.2 0.66 39.8 86,000[
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The control and management of Nokia is divided among the shareholders at a general meeting and the Nokia Group Leadership Team (left),[244] under the direction of the board of directors (right).[245] The chairman and the rest of the Nokia Leadership Team members are appointed by the board of directors. Only the chairman of the Nokia Leadership Team can belong to both the board of directors and the Nokia Group Leadership Team. The Board of Directors' committees consist of the Audit Committee,[246] the Personnel Committee,[247] and the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee.[248][249]
The operations of the company are managed within the framework set by the Finnish Companies Act,[250] Nokia's Articles of Association,[251] and Corporate Governance Guidelines,[252] supplemented by the board of directors' adopted charters. On 25 November , Nokia announced that it would discontinue the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) and distribute its functions to other company leaders. As a result, Chief Operating Officer Joerg Erlemeier decided to step down, effective 1 January .[253]
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Nokia is a public limited liability company and is the oldest company listed under the same name on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, beginning in .[255] Nokia has had a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange since .[8][255] Nokia shares were delisted from the London Stock Exchange in , the Paris Stock Exchange in , the Stockholm Stock Exchange in and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in .[256] Due to the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in , Nokia listed its shares again on the Paris Stock Exchange and was included in the CAC 40 index on 6 January [257] but later removed on 18 September .[258]
In , Nokia had a market capitalization of &#;110 billion; by 17 July this had fallen to &#;6.28 billion, and by 23 February , it increased to &#;26.07 billion. Nokia market cap at was 21.76 billion.
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Nokia's official corporate culture manifesto since the s is called The Nokia Way.[259] It emphasizes the speed and flexibility of decision-making in a flat, networked organization.[260]
The official business language of Nokia is English. All documentation is written in English, and is used in official intra-company communication.
In , Nokia adopted values that were defined with the key words respect, achievement, renewal and challenge.[261] In May , the company redefined its values after initiating a series of discussion across its worldwide branches regarding what the new values of the company should be. Based on the employee suggestions, the new values were defined as: Engaging You, Achieving Together, Passion for Innovation and Very Human.[260] In August , Nokia redefined its values again after the sale of its Devices business, using the original values again.
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The former Nokia House, Nokia's head office until April . The building is located by the Gulf of Finland in Keilaniemi, Espoo, and was constructed between and . It was the workplace of more than 1,000 Nokia employees[255]Nokia are based at Karaportti in Espoo, Finland, just outside capital Helsinki. It has been their head office since after moving from the purpose-built Nokia House in Espoo as part of the sale of the mobile business to Microsoft.[262] The building in Karaportti was previously the headquarters of NSN (now Nokia Networks).[263]
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In , Nokia received the Leading Lights award for most innovative cable/video product[264] and was named to Ethisphere's world's most ethical companies list.[265]
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NSN's provision of intercept capability to Iran[
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In , Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens AG, reportedly provided Iran's monopoly telecom company with technology that allowed it to intercept the Internet communications of its citizens.[272] The technology reportedly allowed Iran to use deep packet inspection to read and change the content of emails, social media, and online calls. The technology "enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes".[273]
During the post-election protests in Iran in June , Iran's Internet access was reported to have slowed to less than a tenth of its normal speeds, which experts suspected was due to using of deep packet inspection.[274]
In July , Nokia began to experience a boycott of their products and services in Iran. The boycott was led by consumers sympathetic to the post-election protest movement and targeted companies deemed to be collaborating with the regime. Demand for handsets fell and users began shunning SMS messaging.[275]
Nokia Siemens Networks asserted in a press release that it provided Iran only with a "lawful intercept capability solely for monitoring of local voice calls" and that it "has not provided any deep packet inspection, web censorship, or Internet filtering capability to Iran".[276]
Nokia&#;Apple patent dispute[
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In October , Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court of Delaware claiming that Apple infringed on 10 of its patents related to wireless communication including data transfer.[277] Apple was quick to respond with a countersuit filed in December accusing Nokia of 11 patent infringements. Apple's general counsel, Bruce Sewell went a step further by stating, "Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours." This resulted in a legal battle between the two telecom majors with Nokia filing another suit, this time with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging Apple had infringed its patents in "virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players and computers".[278] Nokia went on to ask the court to ban all U.S. imports of the Apple products, including the iPhone, Macintosh and iPod. Apple countersued by filing a complaint with the ITC in January .[277]
In June , Apple settled with Nokia and agreed to an estimated one time payment of $600 million and royalties to Nokia.[279] The two companies also agreed on a cross-licensing patents for some of their patented technologies.[280][281]
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Nokia's Indian subsidiary was charged in January with non-payment of Indian Tax Deducted at Source and transgressing transfer pricing norms in India.[282] The unpaid TDS of &#;30 billion, accrued during a course of six years, was due to royalty paid by the Indian subsidiary to its parent company.[283]
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In March , news broke that the company's Nokia 7 Plus phones were allegedly sending personal user data to China over several months. According to investigators, the gadget sent unencrypted data packages including geographical location, SIM card number, and the 's serial number to an unidentified Chinese server every time that "the was turned on, the screen activated or unlocked."[284] The data was sufficient to follow the movements and actions of the in real time.[284]
Nokia brand owner HMD Global denied any such transfers had taken place, stating that it was instead the result of an error in the packing process of the 's software.[285] The Finnish Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman launched an investigation into the matter on the assumption "that personal data has been transferred."[286]
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In , the Australian Strategic Policy Institute accused at least 82 major brands, including Nokia, of being connected to forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang.[287]
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