Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson’s chief executive officer, said the company is “stronger than ever” in his address to the company’s annual general meeting.
Svanberg said Ericsson has achieved a profit of about $3.9 billion, which he said is the company’s highest profit ever. He also said the company’s board would propose a dividend payment.
Svanberg said the telecom industry has undergone a fundamental shift during the past few years, resulting in fewer vendors and fierce competition. He said the company must now focus on customer needs, technical leadership and operational excellence to succeed going forward.
“The market is no longer simply technology driven,” said Svanberg. “Rather, it now has much more focus on the consumer, and that in itself places further demands on technical development.”
Svanberg said last year was a breakthrough year for third-generation technology, and he pointed to continued advancements the company is making with High Speed Downlink Packet Access technology and a future focus on mobile triple-play services. He gave examples, such as MP3 file downloads to wireless phones and applications for home healthcare providers.
Svanberg said Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications sold 50 percent more phones last year than the year before and showed improvements in its results.
Also at the meeting, the company re-elected Michael Treschow chairman of the board of directors. It also re-elected Arne Martensson and Marcus Wallenberg as deputy chairmen and Sir Peter Bonfield, Sverker Martin-Lof, Nancy McKinstry, Eckhard Pfeiffer and Svanberg as members of the board. Ulf Johansson was newly elected to the board, while Lena Torell declined re-election.
The company also resolved to implement a long-term incentive plan, which includes stock incentives for employees, and a share transfer in conjunction with the company’s Global Stock Incentive Program 2001, the Stock Repurchase Plan 2003 and the Long-Term Incentive Plan 2004.
