Håkan Eriksson, the highly respected CTO of Ericsson, is taking what could be interpreted as a step towards retirement by relinquishing his current role and becoming the new head of Ericsson's business in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Eriksson has been with the company for 25 years, and as well as being CTO was head of Ericsson in Silicon Valley. The change will take effect on Feb. 1, 2012. Ericsson says it will reveal the identity of its new CTO in a separate announcement. (See Ericsson CTO Moves to Australia, Euronews: Ericsson Appoints New EVP, Ericsson: Coming Up for AIR in 2012 and Ericsson Sets the Pace in Q3.)
While reducing its headcount is a major part of NSN's restructuring process, selling non-strategic business lines is another downsizing tactic being used by the vendor giant. Its latest divestment deal is with Adtran, which has agreed to buy NSN's fixed-broadband access business for an undisclosed sum. As part of that deal, about 400 NSN staff will transfer to the U.S. access technology specialist, which is intent on building an international presence to add to its existing North American business. (See Adtran to Buy NSN Broadband Biz, Adtran Reports Q3, Adtran Doubles FTTH System Capacity and Adtran Expands Carrier Ethernet Portfolio.)
Telefónica UK Ltd. , which trades under the O2 mobile brand, is offering what it says is the first smartphone leasing service in the U.K. Under the terms of the scheme, the iPhone 4S is available -- with no upfront fee -- for £55 (US$86) a month, a sum that includes insurance, 750 voice minutes, unlimited SMS messages and 500MB of data. However, it being a lease, the handset has to be relinquished at the end of the 12-month contract.
The cheaper version of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)'s "saviorphone," the Lumia 710, goes on sale in Taiwan today, and is due to be rolled out to other markets over the coming weeks. The Lumia 710 costs €270 ($376), compared to the 800 flagship model, which sets customers back €420 ($585). (See Euronews: Crunch Time for Nokia's Lumia and Nokia Ships First Windows Phone to Europe .)
Happy New Year! Orange UK is to hike its monthly charges by 4.3 percent in January for all those customers who signed their contracts before mid-September, reports The Guardian. Orange blames inflation for the move.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
The press release says Håkan's wife is from Australia, so I guess that explains the move.
What's the verdict on how he's done in Silicon Valley?