Ericsson joins slow sales club

Ericsson, the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile telecommunications equipment suffered a sharp drop in sales of networks in the second quarter.

Its net income fell 63 percent from the same period last year.

Phone companies are cutting spending in the face of a global slowdown.

Ericsson’s rivals Alcatel-Lucent and the Chinese group ZTE have both issued profit warnings recently.

Ericsson cited an expected slowdown in sales of outdated CDMA equipment in North America and lower business activity in China, Russia and India for the drop in network sales, which fell 17 percent year on year.

The Swedish company holds about 38 percent of the mobile network equipment market, roughly double its nearest rivals, China’s Huawei Technologies and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Copyright © 2013 euronews