Following the departure of Simon Beresford-Wylie from the CEO post and a new restructuring program, Nokia Siemens Networks' COO Mika Vehviläinen will now be flying the friendly skies as Finnair's new president and CEO.
As suggested in a LightReading article, a number of telecom industry insiders think that Vehviläinen wanted to become CEO of NSN, but decided to look at other job opportunities when the company appointed former head of NSN's services unit Rajeev Suri to the post instead.
This latest development comes only a week after NSN launched a major company restructuring. Vehviläinen said in a company statement that "it was clear to me that the right change for the company and our customers would reduce the role of a dedicated chief operating officer. When Finnair approached me, it seemed like the right opportunity at the right time."
It's not exactly a great time to be at NSN. The company's latest restructuring effort came on the heels of a tough third-quarter that saw revenues decline 21 percent year-on-year. Now, Suri has to steer the company back onto a path of profitability.
And while the company's service business continues to do well, NSN continues to fall behind its competitors in various areas including optical. After losing out to Ericsson for Nortel's CDMA assets, rumors have emerged that NSN could make a bid on Nortel's optical unit. If it is considering a bid on Nortel's optical assets, NSN now has extra time as Nortel just extended the auction deadline. Such a move could help it not only expand its presence in North America, but also in markets such as China where the optical market continues to accelerate.
For more:
- LightReading has this article
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