Wireless infrastructure giant Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) posted a 4-percent increase in net profit in the third quarter of $574 million. Sales for the quarter rose by 17 percent.
CEO Hans Vestberg said the growth was "driven by a continued strong demand for mobile broadband as well as increased services revenues... Our performance year-to-date reaffirms our indications of a strengthened global market share."
Sales in the company's networks business grew 25 percent year-over-year but fell 3 percent sequentially thanks to seasonality and reduced CDMA sales in North America, Ericsson said. All regions except North America, Northern Europe, Central Asia, the Mediterranean and India showed sequential growth in the networks business.
Ericsson also said that the supply chain squeeze it saw as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March has dissipated, and lead times are now back to normal.
"With economic uncertainties in parts of the world, we cannot exclude somewhat more cautious short-term operator spending," Vestberg said.
Ericsson's managed services business saw increased sales of 12 percent quarter-over-quarter, with 24 new managed services contracts reported in the second quarter.
"Increased global smart phone penetration, new devices and the introduction of tiered pricing is driving continued mobile data traffic growth," Vestberg said. "Mobile broadband subscriptions are expected to reach close to one billion by year-end and to reach close to five billion by 2016. We believe that the fundamentals for longer-term positive development for the industry remain solid."
For more:
- see this release
Special Report: Wireless in the third quarter of 2011
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