Ericsson profit off 28%, but sales rise

Ericsson announced its third quarter earnings Monday, and despite a drop in net profits, its stock soared on better-than-expected news.

Despite a 28 percent drop in net income to $384 million, down from $523.6 million last time, the Swedish vendor saw its stock rise 16 percent in trading in Stockholm because it beat the forecast of a net profit of $291 million.

Sales for the No. 1 infrastructure vendor rose 13 percent to $6.5 billion, up from $5.8 billion in the same quarter last year. Sales rose in every region except for Western Europe, where they declined 6 percent, due to weaker demand from Italy, Spain and the U.K., Ericsson said.

"Our business in the quarter has not been impacted by the financial turmoil," said Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg in a statement. "Our customers are generally financially strong. In addition, networks are loaded and traffic shows strong increase."

For more:
-see this full earnings release [1]
-see these [2] articles [3]

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