Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg steps down
After struggling to keep sales up during the ramp up to 5G networks, Ericsson on Monday announced that CEO Hans Vestberg is stepping down.
Vestberg is immediately stepping down as president, CEO, and a member of the board of directors. CFO Jan Frykhammar will assume the CEO position while the company searches for an official replacement.
With 4G networks already built out in the US and China -- and strong competition from the likes of Huawei and Nokia -- Ericsson for the past year has posted disappointing earnings results. The Swedish communications equipment maker last year sought to boost its revenues with a wide-reaching deal with Cisco, which set the companies up to collaborate in areas ranging from Internet of Things devices to core networks and the enterprise IT cloud. However, Nokia's merger with Alcatel-Lucent demonstrated how Ericsson could've taken more dramatic steps to adjust to the market.
