Nokia’s transformation under Chairman Risto Siilasmaa is one of the most significant corporate turnarounds in recent years
I first met Risto Siilasmaa five years ago for lunch in Helsinki, Finland. He had recently stepped into the role of chairman for Nokia, which at the time was suffering from a series of setbacks that included selling their handset business to Microsoft and being bypassed by Verizon and AT&T when the U.S. carriers selected their primary LTE network vendors (Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent).
While posting a series of recent Q&A sessions with Siilasmaa, it seemed appropriate to recap key milestones in Nokia’s turnaround and transformation under his leadership.
NOKIA’S TURNAROUND TIMELINE
2008 – Risto Siilasmaa joins Nokia board. Siilasmaa founded F-Secure and was Finland’s first billionaire.
2010-2014 – Nokia’s global handset market share dropped from 33% to 3% under the leadership of the first non-Finnish director, Stephen Elop. Market capitalization drops by 50%.
2010 – Verizon and AT&T select Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as primary LTE network vendors.
2012 – Risto Siilasmaa becomes chairman of Nokia Board.
Sept 2013-May 2014: Risto Siilasmaa serves as interim chief executive of Nokia, as well as chairman.
2013 – Nokia buys Siemens out of JV for approximately $2.2 billion.
April 2014 – Nokia completes $7.5 billion sale of substantially all of its Device and Services business to Microsoft.
April 2014 – Rajeev Suri announced as Nokia’s new CEO.
August 2014 – Nokia completes acquisition of SAC Wireless, a “self-performer” of network infrastructure deployment services.
April 2015 – Nokia announces $16 billion acquisition of Alcatel Lucent. Deal closes in November 2016, and positions Nokia as a global IP core and mobile network infrastructure provider.
August 2015 – Nokia sells location based technology company, HERE, to German automakers for $3 billion.
March 2016 – Nokia acquires Nakina, a Canadian network security, orchestration and virtualization software company.
June 2016 – Nokia completes $191 million acquisition of health and gadget maker Withings to establish leadership in “preventive health and patient care.”
August 2016 – Nokia acquires Gainspeed, a virtual, converged access platform for cable industry.
October 2016 – Nokia acquires ETA Devices to enhance small cell base station power efficiency required for 5G technology.
January 2017 – Nokia acquires Deepfield, a leading U.S.-based, real-time network analytics and security company.
June 2017 – Nokia announces $370 million acquisition of Comptel to bolster software capabilities at global scale.
June 2017 – Nokia rebrands Withings and launched two new connected health devices.
Visit Nokia’s website for a full listing of recent acquisitions
