The world's largest infrastructure provider reported a decrease in net income as it continues to digest its acquisition of Marconi. The Swedish company posted net earnings of $609 million on sales of $5.2 billion in the first quarter, down from $615 million on sales of $4.2 billion in the year-ago quarter. Ericsson said the former Marconi operations that it bought in October for $2.1 billion were generating an operating loss of $79.2 million. Ericsson said it won't see the cost savings it expected from its integration of Marconi until later than it planned.
CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg also said his company doesn't need to merge or acquire companies to compete with the combined Lucent-Alcatel. "You have those that are clear leaders, and we are a clear leader, and then there are those that are weaker... that don't have the economies of scale. It was anticipated that Lucent Technologies would merge with someone. We are in a strong position and don't need to merge or acquire--we are fine," he said.
To read more about Ericsson's first-quarter results:
- check out this article from Dow Jones
- take a look at this report from Light Reading