SAYING ERICSSON

摘要

Ask investors what Ericsson's business is, and you'll probably get the usual answer: It's the No. 1 seller of wireless telecom networks in the world. And oh―by the way, that business is in deep, deep trouble. Ericsson revenues this year will be 40% less than the record $24 billion booked two years ago. And losses? More than $5 billion total for last year and 2002. That's why Ericsson's widely traded B shares now sell for under a dollar. Sweden's most important company, in other words, is a penny stock. But if CEO Kurt Hellstroem has his way, such ignominy won't be the final chapter. You can already get a glimpse of Ericsson's future in some far-flung corners of the empire. Just stop by the operations center of O_2 Netherlands, the Dutch wireless subsidiary of Britain's MMO_2, for example, and you'll see workers in Ericsson T-shirts hunched over computer workstations monitoring the nationwide network. These 240 technicians aren't employees of O_2. They're an all-Ericsson team, permanently based at O_2 to run the wireless network lock, stock, and barrel―Ericsson, the company-for-hire. For this traditional maker of big network systems, it's a huge change.