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Pulakit Bararia
Building Snippetz la... • 2d
In 2014, Nokia was near bankruptcy. By 2024, it controlled 29% of the global 5G market. Here’s how one “boring” CEO pulled off the greatest corporate survival story of the decade. While Nokia’s phone division was collapsing under Stephen Elop’s leadership, another part of the company was quietly thriving. Nokia Solutions and Networks had been unprofitable for years until 2009, when Rajeev Suri took charge. By 2014, it was profitable, stable, and keeping the rest of Nokia alive. Suri wasn’t an outsider. He’d been with Nokia since 1990. When he became CEO in 2014, they finally had a leader built for crisis. From day one, his plan was clear: restructure, cut costs, and scale back dramatically. Nokia had to pivot. The question was — pivot to what? The answer came from his old sector: focus on Networks, HERE, and Technologies. Then came the big bet. In 2015, Nokia acquired Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion. The real prize? Bell Labs — one of the most legendary R&D labs in telecom history, with over 29,000 patents. The target was clear: 5G. Nokia began building a network before the technology was commercially available. They couldn’t afford to be late, like in the smartphone race. The competition was fierce — Huawei and Ericsson had bigger networks and deeper roots. But Nokia pushed forward. In 2018, after years of investment, they unveiled Reefshark — a huge leap in 5G chip design. It delivered 84 Gbit/s bandwidth (3× faster), was 50% smaller, and consumed 64% less power. Cheaper. Faster. More efficient. It marked a clear pivot from consumers (B2C) to businesses (B2B). Soon after came partnerships with NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s largest telecom operator, followed by AT&T, Vodafone, and more. By 2020, Nokia had 100+ commercial 5G agreements. By late 2024, that number was over 300. They now control 29% of the 5G market outside China, and their products support 6.4 billion+ subscriptions worldwide. Revenue, which had fallen below $6B before the Microsoft split, climbed by over $20B by 2022. Today, Nokia’s market cap sits at around $25B — a fraction of its peak — but for the first time in 17 years, they have stability. They survived certain death.
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