Nokia chairman denies returning to handset production

As the new Nokia started on Thursday, chairman Risto Siilasmaa once again dismissed the idea that the former handset giant would return to the production of mobile phones.

"Unless something really revolutionary would be developed," he added, noting that he did not see anything like that now. But Nokia would license out its brand to manufacturers, Siilasmaa said in an interview with Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

Thursday was the launch date for the company based on the takeover of Alcatel-Lucent.

Of the company's 113,000 employees, 37.5 percent are in Asia or the Pacific region, followed by 36.5 percent in Europe.

In terms of turnover, North America will be the most important continent.

One third of the Nokia work force are involved in research and development under a 4.2-billion-euro budget for innovations. Yle noted that its two major competitors, Huawei and Cisco, spend more on development.

Siilasmaa underlined the mental learning process the company has gone through.

Siilasmaa said he had encouraged entrepreneurship in the new Nokia. He noted such an approach should be possible to maintain even in a large corporation.

Siilasmaa recollected how the joining of forces with Siemens had produced a bundle of problems. "It was driven by politics and not by efforts to increase the value of the company," the chairman said and noted that Nokia had learned the lesson. As part of its rebirth process, Nokia then bought the Siemens' part of the joint venture.

Commenting on the last difficult phase of old Nokia, Siilasmaa said the talk with Microsoft about the handset branch had been difficult and was broken several times. Endit