Nokia said today its profits dropped 69 percent in the fourth quarter as the world economic downturn slowed handset sales.
Net profit was $743.62 million, down from $2.39 billion in the same period in 2007. Sales dropped 19.5 percent to $16.4 billion, from $20.5 billion.
"We are taking action to reduce overall costs and to preserve our strong capital structure. This is clearly our top priority in the current economic environment," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. "In recent weeks, the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated rapidly, with even weaker consumer confidence, unprecedented currency volatility and credit tightness continuing to impact the mobile communications industry."
The Finnish company gave a bleak outlook, saying it expects global mobile device volumes to drop 10 percent in 2009 compared to last year. Last month, it predicted a 5 percent decrease.
The company said it would cut annual costs at its handset unit by $909 million annually, but didn't give any details.
Nokia shipped 113 million handsets in last three months of 2008, down 15 percent from the same period a year earlier. It sold less handsets in all regions, including China where sales dropped the most in the quarter - by 36 percent compared to the same period in 2007.
