Ericsson plans US staff reduction

Telefon AB LM Ericsson, the Swedish wireless network company, is planning a reduction of staff in North America, a company spokesman said Friday.

"We continuously make sure that we have the right competence in the right places in our organization. In North America this review means some employees will be made redundant, but it's less than 10% of our North American staff," said Ericsson spokesperson Ola Rembe.

Ericsson has been expanding aggressively in the region the past couple of years. In 2009, the company acquired the wireless equipment business of Nortel Networks Corp. and last year it bought the Piscataway-based network software company Telcordia.

"Since we acquired Nortel, we have increased our staff in the North America from some 5,000 people to more than 17,000 people," said Rembe.

Ericsson's North American sales decreased 21% in the fourth quarter of last year, mainly due to lower sales to the U.S. CDMA network--a radio communication standard common in the country--as carriers started shifting toward the next-generation long-term evolution, or LTE, standard for wireless communication. At 0850 GMT shares in Ericsson traded 0.4% higher at SEK65.15.

Source: Total Telecom

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