Nokia Corporation (NOK)

[Eric]

re: TBR Metrics on Nokia and Comm Equipment Competitors

* TBR recently published the 2Q02 competitive rankings of its Network Business Quarterly syndication, ranking Nokia in the No. 1 position over Cisco and Ericsson.

* "The company’s strong balance sheet, cash flow and continued profitability clearly position Nokia as the leader in the industry"

* Nokia’s and Cisco’s strong business models and leading market positions are carrying them through the lingering telecom market downturn.

* Cisco’s dominant position in the enterprise networking market and Nokia’s top position in the mobile phone market are offsetting the declines in telecom equipment sales for these companies.

* "While the telecom equipment market is still quite large, it is shrinking to a point at which the top players cannot all reach profitability in 2003 while sustaining R&D and marketing expenses to stay competitive in the long term."

* The telecom industry "downturn" has been relabeled a "crisis" during the last several months due to multiple factors:

- The industry is faced with an excess of network capacity leading to stalled spending on equipment purchases

- A lack of capital due to weak investor confidence amidst corporate scandals, a highly competitive environment for end-user demand due to the slow economy and an uncertain regulatory environment.

- A highly competitive environment for end-user demand due to the slow economy and an uncertain regulatory environment.

* From a macroeconomic perspective, the telecom industry continues to lacks economic equilibrium and will need to work through a great deal of distressed assets during the next 12 months.

* Relative to current spending levels of service providers, the industry has significant people and fixed assets that are tied up in underutilized or overbuilt companies that need to be reallocated to new opportunities.

* We can expect a great deal of structural changes during the next 12 months, as the top infrastructure players reposition with a combination of mergers, divestures, business swaps and spinoffs.

NBQ Infrastructure Vendors 2Q02 Benchmark and Partial Metrics 
  
                Nokia  Cisco  Ericsson Motorola  Nortel  Lucent Alcatel 
 NBQ Benchmark 
  
 NBQ Ranking      1      2        3       4        5        6      7 
 NBQ Score       7.52   5.97     5.11    5.09     4.47     4.46   4.41 
   
 Business Model  
  
 Year-to-Year 
 Revenue Growth -5.6%  12.4%   -38.6%  -10.0%   -39.8%   -49.3% -37.4% 
  
 Operating  
 Margin         17.6%  19.6%   -8.0%   -33.2%   -30.8%   -78.1%  -8.4% 
   
 Revenue  
 per Employee  $529M  $531M   $272M    $269M     $285M    $286M  $226M

>> Technology Business Research Ranks Nokia No. 1 in 2Q02 Benchmark Results

Hampton, N.H.
Technology Business Research
Oct. 10, 2002

http://www.tbri.com/News/pgViewPR.asp?Id=53

Technology Business Research recently published the 2Q02 competitive rankings of its Network Business Quarterly syndication, ranking Nokia in the No. 1 position over Cisco and Ericsson.

"The company’s strong balance sheet, cash flow and continued profitability clearly position Nokia as the leader in the industry," stated Nokia analyst Jay Slattery.

In addition, TBR is pleased to announce new coverage of Siemens and Samsung as part of its NBQ service. NBQ will cover Samsung Electronics, one of the top mobile phone makers that continues to strengthen its global brand, and Siemens’ telecom industry division, which includes: Information and Communication Networks, Information and Communication Mobile and Siemens Business Services.

Ranked No. 1 and No. 2 by TBR’s 2Q02 NBQ competitive benchmark, Nokia’s and Cisco’s strong business models and leading market positions are carrying them through the lingering telecom market downturn. Cisco’s dominant position in the enterprise networking market and Nokia’s top position in the mobile phone market are offsetting the declines in telecom equipment sales for these companies.

Although the business model metrics of No. 3-ranked Ericsson and No. 4-ranked Motorola stayed about the same this quarter, the companies improved their rankings due to the weakening of Lucent’s metrics, which left Lucent ranked No. 6. Nortel jumped to No. 5 this quarter from No. 7 last quarter due to improved business model metrics. Nortel, Lucent and Alcatel had similar metric results, but Alcatel was left in the No. 7 ranking.

"While the telecom equipment market is still quite large, it is shrinking to a point at which the top players cannot all reach profitability in 2003 while sustaining R&D and marketing expenses to stay competitive in the long term," stated Bill Lesieur, director of NBQ.

The telecom industry "downturn" has been relabeled a "crisis" during the last several months due to multiple factors: the industry is faced with an excess of network capacity leading to stalled spending on equipment purchases, a lack of capital due to weak investor confidence amidst corporate scandals, a highly competitive environment for end-user demand due to the slow economy and an uncertain regulatory environment.

"From a macroeconomic perspective, the telecom industry continues to lacks economic equilibrium and will need to work through a great deal of distressed assets during the next 12 months. Relative to current spending levels of service providers, the industry has significant people and fixed assets that are tied up in underutilized or overbuilt companies that need to be reallocated to new opportunities. As a result, we can expect a great deal of structural changes during the next 12 months, as the top infrastructure players reposition with a combination of mergers, divestures, business swaps and spinoffs."

About TBR:

TBR is a leading industry advisory firm providing comprehensive analysis of high-tech firms from a combined business, financial and technical perspective. TBR specializes in the computer, networking, mobile and professional services industries. Financial results and business models serve as the basis of TBR’s analysis of vendors’ progress each quarter in meeting their strategic and functional objectives (product, marketing and manufacturing/supply chain). In each quarterly report, TBR tracks changes to the vendors’ internal strengths and weaknesses, along with external factors impacting market opportunities and competitive threats.

TBR’s Network Business Quarterly service provides coverage of the major players in the networking, communications and Internet infrastructure markets. NBQ includes coverage of Alcatel (NYSE: ALA), Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Lucent (Nasdaq: LU), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Nokia (Nasdaq: NOK), Nortel (NYSE: NT), Samsung, Siemens (NYSE: SI) and 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS). NBQ also covers the six leading U.S. wireless carriers: AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE), Cingular Wireless [BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) and SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) joint venture], Nextel Communications (NASDAQ: NXTL), Sprint PCS (NYSE: PCS), Verizon Wireless [Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) joint venture] and T-Mobile USA [Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) subsidiary]. <<

- Eric -