Nokia sales and profits soar

The world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia, has reported a 42% rise in profits and a 50% increase in sales.

The strong third quarter gives us confidence in achieving our growth, profitability and market share targets for 2000

Jorma Ollila, Nokia

Details of Nokia's performance in the three months to the end of September were published a week early because of the volatility in the world's stock markets which has followed profits warnings from several leading high-tech firms.

Its third-quarter pre-tax profit was 1.34bn euros ($1.14bn), 42% up on a year earlier and beating forecasts of 1.15bn euros.

This was achieved on sales of 7.58bn euros.

Mobile phone sales rocketed 59% to 5.46bn euros.

Spectacular growth

Chief executive Jorma Ollila said: "The strong third quarter gives us confidence in achieving our growth, profitability and market share targets for 2000."

He has set the company a sales growth target for 2001 of 25% to 35%.

Nokia has estimated that 550 million mobile phones will be sold in 2000 by all producers, rising to one billion in 2002.

Analysts said the figures were "spectacular" and showed that Nokia had strengthened its market share.

Similar success

The American software giant, Microsoft, shrugged off its legal concerns to post better than expected quarterly profits.

Microsoft said it had done well across all its businesses, with key product Windows 2000 performing strongly in the corporate market.

Profits in the three months to 30 September rose to $2.58bn, from $2.19bn a year earlier.

Sun Microsystems also reported a big boost in quarterly earnings.

Internet service provider America Online joined the party, posting record subscriber and advertising revenue growth.

Relief for markets

Taken altogether, the figures are being seen as a welcome relief for the markets, which have been taking a technology-led battering.

The Nasdaq opened firmly higher on Thursday, and the Dow Jones industrial average was also up in early trading.

US stocks had slumped to year lows on Wednesday, with the Dow crashing below the psychologically significant 10,000 barrier before staging a partial recovery to end down 1.14%, at 9,975.02.

The fall was led by an 18-point drop in the shares of IBM.

Figures from Microsoft - which has seen its share price fall by more than 50% since December - revealed a weak spot in Europe.

The firm said demand there was likely to remain sluggish because most machines were priced in US dollars and the weakness of the euro made them about 25% more expensive to European consumers than a year ago.

Sun Microsystems

Sun said its first-quarter earnings rose 88%, with sales soaring by 60%.

The earnings release was briefly and mistakenly posted on Sun's internet site and then quickly pulled down.

The figures were meant to be distributed after the markets closed.

Before word spread to traders and investors, Sun shares had been trading at about $108. But once it did, the shares shot up $10.

In Sun's fourth quarter, its sales rose 42%, vastly outpacing rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

America Online

AOL delivered earnings equivalent to 14 cents a share, slightly ahead of expectations, thanks to strong growth in subscriber, e-commerce and advertising revenues.

It said its first-quarter earnings, excluding extraordinary items, rose to $340m, compared with $182m.

Advertising and e-commerce revenue - which accounted for a third of total revenues - rose 80% to $649m.

The ISP, which is in the midst of seeking US approval of its merger with Time Warner, said it added 1.4 million subscribers in the quarter, giving it a worldwide total of 24.6 million.