Nokia open to divesting businesses to provide shareholder value

livemint.com:

Mint on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress last week. “We’re open to divesting certain businesses. We are looking at this portfolio all the time.

If we divest a certain business, maybe as an exception, we'll keep some geography, but as a norm we will get out it, but we are not looking to divest major businesses," Batra said. The company divested from its joint venture with Huawei in China’s wireless technology firm TD Tech. In response to a question on whether it will move out of segments where it isn’t leading, Batra said, “Either we are not leading, or we know that we can't lead.

But there are businesses where we know we can lead. For instance, in optical business, we’re not a market leader, third largest globally, but the profile of the business is good, on the back of good product and geopolitics," he said. His comments came in the backdrop of Nokia’s global restructuring in the fourth quarter last year where it overhauled operations, consolidated its major business of making network equipment, and laid off 14,000 people.

Nokia merged its sales and marketing teams with its business units of mobile networks, network infrastructure, cloud and network services, across all geographies, which will help the company position itself for longer-term growth amid market uncertainty and in turn save between $850 million and $1.3 billion by 2026. The changes were reflective in India as well, where about 200-250 people were reportedly laid off and Tarun Chhabra, head of mobile networks, was made the new India head, from April 2024. The senior executive said that the steps were taken in the interests of shareholders, since the stock that was getting a conglomerate discount would now be better valued since investors would