Vendor strategy N54

Nortel announced management reshuffle. Bill Owens is appointed Vice Chairman and CEO; Gary Daichendt is appointed President and COO and Peter Currie is appointed Executive Vice President and CFO. Daichendt will be in charge of carrier and enterprise businesses, research and development, services and supply chain functions and global sales and operations.

Ericsson saw its Russian sales up 79% to $540m in 2004, thanks to mobile market growth.

IBM defined a new strategy to address the SMB markets and vertical industries through ISVs, integrators and resellers. It will expand its PartnerWorld Industry Networks program to include four new industries: Fabrication and assembly; wholesale distribution; media and entertainment; and education and learning. IBM will invest some $300m in the coming months to boost delivering IT services to SMBs in the US and Europe.

Nokia expects China will be soon its largest market with about 15% share of total revenues (from current 10%).

Fujitsu targets to boost its profitability to 5% in operating margin (from current 2%). Cutting costs, focus in key areas such as optics and 3G, and strategic alliances (with Cisco) are the main drivers for improvement.

ZTE has been leading the drafting work of ITU recommendation G.665 on optical amplifier technology. It highlights the increasing weight of Chinese manufacturers in the worldwide scene.

Ubisoft (France), in moves to bar a hostile takeover from competitor Electronics Arts, has bought MC2-mocroids Canadian unit and sport games from Microsoft Games Studios.

Chinese handset makers: only 10 out of 40 Chinese handset makers received approval from newly-debuted verification system for handset production.

Ericsson is changing its 220 senior managers incentives. The upper threshold of the performance target is increased and shares will be allocated if EPS average growth is at or above 15% (vs. current 12% ).

Siemens CEO intends to clean its mobile handset arm and its software branch SBS as soon as possible. Alliance or sale is no more a taboo.