NEW YORK-In profits, the category that counts the most, Nokia Corp. retained top billing, with Ericsson Inc. holding on to second place, according to information from Standard & Poor’s.
Lucent Technologies Inc., which ranked sixth last year, moved into third place, displacing ADC Telecommunications Inc., which took seventh place in this year’s profit leaders ranking. General Dynamics Corp., which was not part of the major players listings last year, took sixth place.
Motorola Inc. and Alcatel Alsthom retained their respective fourth- and fifth-place spots.
ADC may have gotten nudged down a few notches in terms of overall profits, but it also moved up two rungs into first place on the ladder for profit growth in percentage terms. NEC Corp. took second this year. Metro One Telecomm Inc. moved into third, up from seventh place a year earlier.
Qualcomm Inc., which placed second last year, moved down into fourth place, and Wireless Facilities Inc. dropped a notch to fifth place from fourth.
O2wireless Solutions Inc. stood out in the crowd for the staggering 18,523-percent decline in profits. Last year, o2wireless made the major players rankings as the holder of seventh place in the revenue-growth-leaders category.
Because percentage changes in profits were unavailable for a substantial number of the companies in this year’s major players rankings, accurate comparisons of their standings relative to each other in this regard are impossible.
On the revenue side, the Japanese giants Matsushita Electric Corp. and NEC retained their respective first- and second-place standings. Motorola and Lucent provided a repeat performance of their respective third- and fourth-place finish, according to this criterion.
Nortel Networks Corp. maintained its fifth-place status in terms of revenues this year. However, it also posted the single largest loss in dollar value, some $2.957 billion, of any major player in the rankings this year.
Aether Systems Inc. retained first place when evaluated in terms of percentage growth in revenues. 724 Solutions Inc. moved up two levels to second place, nudging SignalSoft Corp. down one step to third.
Sliding into fourth place this year was Novatel Wireless Inc., which was not part of last year’s major players rankings. US Wireless Corp. took fifth place, a splashy showing for a company that did not make the standings in this category last year.
Spectrasite Holdings Inc., which placed third last year, slid into ninth place behind AvantGo Inc., ranked sixth, Netro Corp., ranked seventh, and Vyyo Inc., ranked eighth.
