Ericsson promotes services chief Frykhammar as CFO

Even more changes are coming to Ericsson as the company has appointed the current head of global services and senior vice president Jan Frykhammar to the CFO post. The change, which is effective November 1, comes as current CFO and executive vice president Hans Vestberg readies himself for the CEO post from the departing Carl-Henric Svanberg. Svanberg will be leaving the company in January to become the chairman of the board for BP.

While Vestberg said he does not see Ericsson altering its current strategy, the telecom vendor will need to find ways to remain effective in a challenging economic market. Ericsson reported in its third-quarter earnings statement that net profit dipped 72 percent.

Offsetting Ericsson's poor equipment sales has been increased sales in its services business. Service providers are using Ericsson's services to cut costs by outsourcing certain functions to a third-party. This past summer, Ericsson won a $5 billion deal to take over Sprint/Nextel's network operations this past summer. Ericsson's competitors Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent, which have both struggled in recent quarters, are also seeing similar growth in professional services.

For more:
- Wall Street Journal has this article [1]

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