Nokia

Stock performance

History

Nokia began as a Finnish pulp mill and evolved over more than a century through a remarkable series of business transformations — rubber goods, cables, electronics — before becoming the dominant global mobile-phone maker through the 1990s and 2000s, at its peak the most valuable company in Europe. The rise of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android software after 2007 caught Nokia flat-footed, and its mobile-phone business collapsed and was sold to Microsoft in 2014, after which Nokia rebuilt itself around telecommunications network equipment, acquiring French-American rival Alcatel-Lucent in 2016.

Business model

Nokia now designs and manufactures mobile-network infrastructure equipment — the radio and core network technology telecom operators use to build cellular networks — sold primarily to carriers worldwide, alongside a smaller technology-licensing business drawing on its large patent portfolio built up during its mobile-phone era.

Market position

Nokia is one of the three dominant global mobile-network equipment suppliers alongside Ericsson and China's Huawei, having rebuilt itself entirely around network infrastructure after exiting the consumer-phone business it once dominated. Western restrictions on Huawei in several markets over security concerns have benefited both Nokia and Ericsson.

Country impact

Nokia's rise and fall as the world's dominant mobile-phone maker is one of the most studied case studies in Finnish and global business history, and its collapse in the early 2010s was a significant shock to the Finnish economy given how large a share of national GDP and exports it once represented. Its successful rebuild around network equipment remains a major part of the Finnish technology sector.