Ericsson restructures and forms three separate business units
Vendor set for yet another overhaul to bolster sales in IP-networking and multimedia technology markets
Vendor Ericsson has restructured again and formed three separate business units: Networks, Global Services and Multimedia.
The vendor will recruit 500 engineers to accelerate research, specifically in the area of IP networks and multimedia technology. The new structure will come into effect from January next year.
Ericsson’s previous restructures have included a merger of its western Europe sales organisation with its central Europe, Middle East and Africa, forming a single EMEA sales set-up (CRN, 24 February 2003). In May last year, the vendor announced plans to simplify its Mobile Systems Code Division Multiple Access unit with 250 employees made redundant.
Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and chief executive of Ericsson, said: “The time is right to accelerate the pace of business development and establish a market-defining role in the integration of communications and media.
“We will leverage our position in mobile networks, services and transmission and expand our leadership in next-generation converging IP networks with a focus on multimedia applications and services. Multimedia is an area in which there are several obvious business opportunities. It is also a potentially powerful driver for increasing network capacity and investments by operators.”
Jess Thompson-Hughes, managing director of distributor React Technologies, which was formed in March 2003 from the ashes of Ericsson’s IP networking division, said: “Ericsson is a good company, but it is hampered by its management. They are serial reorganisers, and this strategy does nothing to help them. It thinks reorganising will improve the business, but instead it just confuses both its staff and customers.
“Ericsson is trying to create a slightly more streamlined business model, but in six months time it’s bound to all change again.”