Nokia reorganizes into four divisions

HELSINKI (AFP) – Nokia, the world’s leading mobile phone maker, said it would reorganize its corporate structure into four divisions to "focus on convergence, new mobility markets and growth."

The new group structure, to come into effect at the beginning of 2004, will divide Nokia into four separate business areas – Mobile Phones, Multimedia, Networks and Enterprise Solutions.

"The industry and corporate structures that were established a decade ago at the dawn of mobile communications were very different from what is needed going ahead," Jorma Ollila, president and chief executive of Nokia, said.

"With our flexibility and the new structure we are truly in the best position to bring the benefits of mobility to everyone and to take the opportunity of the next growth wave in this industry," he added.

Currently, Nokia is made up of two business groups, Mobile Phones and Networks, as well as a separate venture fund and a research unit.

Nokia’s mobile phone division, which contributes most of the group’s income, was restructured into nine units last year.

Of the two new divisions, spun off from the mobile phone side, the consumer-oriented multimedia unit will provide games, music, entertainment and other content to handsets and mobile devices.

The enterprise solutions division, focusing on business clients, aims at bringing mobile access to corporate networks for professionals who travel frequently, like sales and maintenance personnel.

Analysts said the move was anticipated, as Nokia focused its structure toward software applications for handsets and mobile terminals, which is seen as one of the main drivers in the future for the mobile phone industry.

"Basically, this realigns the group along the strategic goals of the mobile phone business and its new growth areas," Mika Paloranta, telecom analyst with the investment bank Carnegie, said.

Meanwhile, Nokia has unveiled new technologies that will check e-mails for computer viruses, unlawful content and spam.

The new system, for laptops and computers, uses Postini Inc. anti-spam technology and will be available on Nokia Message Protector that can scan more than 120,000 messages an hour, Nokia said.

"E-mail remains the number one mission critical business application," said Dave Edwards, a senior director at Nokia. "When e-mail is disrupted the business stops. Not properly securing enterprise e-mail content can adversely impact a company’s bottom-line."

Postini, based in Redwood City, California, is a provider of e-mail security for businesses worldwide. It provides protection for more than 1,600 companies and five million users, processing more than 120 million messages daily.