Ericsson reports $1.7B net income in 2010

Ericsson AG (ERIC) reported $671 million in net income during its recently closed quarter, a 504% jump from the year-ago period when it brought in $106.1 million.
The infrastructure vendor’s net income was also up 23% from the previous quarter when it hauled in $549 million. Full-year income hit $1.7 billion for 2010, marking a 172% percent jump from $625.4 million in 2009.
Ericsson reported an 8% year-over-year improvement in group sales, “mainly driven by a strong development in mobile broadband,” Hans Vestberg, president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. The leap in full year results was primarily due to improvements in the company’s Sony Ericsson joint venture and less restructuring charges, he added.
“2010 marks the first year of 4G/LTE and we have established a clear lead in this area. Our strategy to strengthen our position in key markets such as the United States and Korea as well as increased footprint in the ongoing network modernization has also been successful during the year. Although network modernization projects, along with the 3G rollouts in India, puts initial pressure on gross margin these projects are important parts of our efforts to strengthen our platform for continued long-term growth and profitability,” Vestberg continued.
“In 2010, mobile broadband subscriptions increased 30% to approximately 500 million, still only representing some 10% of total mobile subscriptions. We expect the strong uptake for mobile broadband to continue in 2011, with number of mobile broadband subscriptions expected to double and hit one billion already this year. This will be driven by more smartphone devices, including entry level smartphones as well as tablets. Mobile data traffic is forecasted to almost double annually over the coming years.”