The management of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) needs to be considerably strengthened, according to Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser, adding another wrinkle into the debate over NSN's management.
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Kaeser |
Speaking to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Kaeser ducked a question about NSN requiring a new CEO, and would only confirm that he thought it important that the management of NSN has to be "reinforced considerably."
Kaeser also that Siemens and Nokia would no longer be injecting any more money into their loss-making NSN joint venture. However, he said that NSN's supervisory board was "sceptical" that the joint venture unit would no longer need further money from its parents. "The latest mid-term business plan [of NSN] does not show any further need for capital from the shareholders. That is the clear benchmark for the NSN management," Kaeser said.
These latest comments come after Sibylle Wankel, a trade union leader who has a seat on Siemens' supervisory board, was reported as saying earlier this month that Siemens was conducting a search for a new CEO for NSN. Since this report, NSN has strenuously denied that the current CEO Rajeev Suri is under pressure. A Nokia spokeswoman told Reuters that these rumours were "complete rubbish." NSN spokesman Ben Roome added that the executive chairman of NSN, Jesper Ovesen, had said that the NSN board "had full confidence" in Suri.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this Handelsblatt article (translated via Google Translate)
- see this second Handelsblatt article (translated via Google Translate)
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