While Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has been making headlines throughout 2012, the fourth quarter has proved to be particularly eventful.
In November 2012, NSN announced that it was selling its optical fiber unit, and then in December it revealed that its failure to renew a contract with Deutsche Telekom (DT) would result in the closure of one of its services units in Germany.
A few days later, NSN sold its BSS division, which had been on the market since early 2012, to Redknee.
These announcements raise a number of questions about NSN: what is left and how can the company survive? And is it heading towards the same dark place as Nortel, or has the recent flurry of activity brought the company back on course?
NSN has been true to its word that it would exit non-core businesses and focus on mobile broadband to sustain its margins.
Wireline products and BSS were the two headline areas for divestiture, but in 2012 the vendor has also sold its microwave transport business to Canadian network vendor DragonWave; its broadband access unit to Adtran; its Wimax division to NewNet Communication Technologies; its IPTV business to Accenture; and its optical network division to private equity company Marlin Equity Partners. In December 2012, NSN announced that it had also sold its BSS unit to Redknee.
NSN hopes that a more focused company is a healthier company
At the beginning of 2012, NSN CEO Rajeev Suri was adamant that BSS wasn’t core to the vendor’s mobile broadband offerings. At the time, we questioned the impact that this would have on its customer experience management (CEM) offering.