Nokia Reports Quarterly Losses for the First Time in 10 Years

Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones, said Thursday that it suffered quarterly losses of 559 million EUR for the first time in ten years. The Finnish company reported a 20 percent reduction in sales. The company's share price plummeted 6.6 percent to 9.62 EUR ($14.32) in Helsinki.

Photo: Nokia Reports Quarterly Losses for the First Time in 10 Years

In the third quarter of 2008, the corporation reported a profit of 1.09 billion EUR.

Net sales in the July-September period dropped to 9.81 billion EUR, down from 12.2 billion EUR in the same period last year, partly due to a shortage of components across its product portfolio, Nokia said.

Nevertheless, Nokia maintained No. 1 position in global mobile phone sales, with 38 percent market share. The situation has not changed since the same period in 2008 and the second quarter of this year at this point. It said it expects no growth in the fourth quarter.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset makes up 62 EUR - down from 72 EUR in the same quarter in 2008, but unchanged from the second quarter of this year.

Nokia is engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries, with 128,445 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and global annual revenue of EUR 50.7 billion and operating profit of 5.0 billion as of 2008. It is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones: its global device market share was about 38% in Q3 2009, at the same level as in Q3 2008 and in Q2 2009.

Nokia produces mobile devices for every major market segment and protocol, including GSM, CDMA, and W-CDMA (UMTS). Nokia offers Internet services that enable people to experience music, maps, media, messaging and games.