Ericsson CTO to head up IP business

The executive reshuffle continued at Swedish vendor Ericsson on Thursday, with incoming CEO Hans Vestberg nominating CTO Håkan Eriksson as head Ericsson in Silicon Valley, the centre of the company’s important IP business.

Eriksson will lead Ericsson’s development of fixed, mobile and internet convergence technologies from January 2010. He will succeed Bert Nordberg, newly appointed president of handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson.

Eriksson will keep his current role as CTO and head of group function technology & portfolio management and will remain as member of the group management team. He was appointed senior vice president and CTO in 2003 and was responsible for development activities carried out in Ericsson’s core network development, radio network development and service network and applications, as well as for Ericsson Research. Prior to this, he served for five years as head of Ericsson Research.

hakan-eriksson

Ericsson Cto, Håkan Eriksson

Last month Vestberg nominated his successor to take the position of chief financial officer. Jan Frykhammar, who took the role from November 1, was formerly head of the global services business unit and senior vice president. Frykhammar will remain as head of global services until a successor has been appointed.

Carl-Henric Svanberg announced in June that he was standing down as president and CEO of the Swedish infrastructure vendor to become chairman of BP.

Ericsson took a beating during the third quarter of 2009, watching its net income dive 74 per cent year on year, dragged down by poor demand and further hits from its joint ventures.

Net income for the period shrank to SEK800m, down from SEK2.9bn in the third quarter of 2008. Net sales were also down 6 per cent year on year to SEK46.4bn, compared to SEK49.2bn in the third quarter of 2008.