Nokia has denied reports it's looking to replace president and CEO Pekka Lundmark.
The Financial Times reported that the company was seeking to replace Lundmark and chair Sari Baldau as the company seeks to recover from its ongoing revenue slump.
Nokia denied the reports, with a Nokia spokesperson telling Capacity that its board “fully supports” Lundmark and is “not undergoing a process to replace him.”
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“It is a core responsibility for every board to systematically and continuously assess and discuss the leadership team’s long-term succession plan through a comprehensive approach that covers internal and external candidates,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“This is the same process for our chair and board of directors. For this work we also use the help of professional advisors. Our CEO and chair are fully aware and involved in this process.”
Lundmark took on the CEO role after he replaced Rajeev Suri in mid-2020, joining a company in what he described as a “challenging” position.
Four years on, Nokia has shifted focus, adopting a more R&D-centric approach that stabilizing the Finnish firm.
However, Nokia reported in the summer that Q2 sales declined to €4.5 billion from €5.4 billion, while its operating profits also dropped from €619 million to €423 million.
Nokia also lost out to Ericsson to supply Open RAN equipment for AT&T's wireless networks, a move Lundmark described as a “disappointing development."
The company announced last October plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs.
This is the second report Nokia has sought to quash in as many weeks after it denied a Bloomberg story that linked Samsung with buying its Mobile Networks assets for $10 billion.
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