Nokia's Network Sales Down 14% in Q4

Nokia posted non-IFRS net sales in Q4 2016 of EUR 6.7bn (reported: EUR 6.6bn), down from the year-ago quarter when non-IFRS net sales would have been EUR 7.7bn on a comparable combined company basis (reported: EUR 3.6bn on a Nokia stand-alone basis).

Nokia's networks business declined 14% year-on-year net sales decrease in Q4 2016, reflecting challenging market conditions in Q4 2016 and the difficult comparison against the strong performance by Alcatel-Lucent in Q4 2015.

Nokia Technologies experienced a 25% year-on-year net sales decrease and 49% operating profit decrease in Q4 2016, primarily due to the absence of the Samsung arbitration award, which benefited Q4 2015.

Alcatel Submarine Networks posted strong sales in Q4.

Rajeev Suri, President and CEO of Nokia, stated: "At the start of the year, Nokia was focused primarily on mobile networks.  We ended the year as a company with a complete portfolio spanning mobile, fixed, routing, optical, stand-alone software and more; with solid opportunities to drive higher returns through expansion into new customer segments; with emerging businesses in digital health and digital media; and with greatly expanded patent and brand licensing activities."

"Pleasingly, we saw growing customer support for Nokia's strategy. Our sales pipeline with customers beyond our traditional communication service provider base accelerated over the course of the year, we saw an increasing share of our Networks pipeline coming from opportunities covering products and services from two or more of our business groups, and the potential of cross-selling started to become a reality."

"We also ended the year having successfully concluded the integration of Alcatel-Lucent faster than anticipated, allowing us to shift our full focus to cost savings, continuous improvement programs and the execution of our strategy."

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