Ericsson has reported its Q4 results along with its full-year results for 2024, and while the Swedish vendor saw an uptick in North America, its sales have cratered across emerging markets.
While the vendor’s results were far from disastrous, the disparity between its success in North America and its decline in the rest of the world was stark. In the fourth quarter, Ericsson saw its sales spike by 54% year-on-year in North America to US$71.9 billion, while for 2024 the region accounted for a sales increase of 24%.
However, the picture was less rosy across all other markets – while its market area increased slightly in Europe and Latin America, its full-year sales were down 2% in these regions despite a 2% jump in Q4. While Ericsson noted that sales in Europe were stable, with lower customer capex spend offset by strong customer deliveries and market share gains, its sales in Latin America declined by 2% due to increased price competition and lower customer network investments.
This was just the start – across the South East Asia, Oceania and India markets, Ericsson clocked a hefty 38% fall in sales year-on-year for 2024. The vendor attributed this to a normalisation of network investment levels in India after a record year in 2023, although sales also fell in Southeast Asia, with macroeconomic uncertainty and market consolidation affecting investment levels. Ericsson did win some contracts in the region but noted that cloud software and services sales were also down.
Meanwhile, in Africa and the Middle East, sales were down 12% year-on-year for 2024. Ericsson argued that much like in India, the Middle East saw a spate of 5G deployments in 2023 and accordingly investment had dropped this year, while in Africa customer investment was affected by macroeconomic factors and currency devaluations, while price competition remained intense.
Ericsson’s President and CEO Börje Ekholm talked up the vendor’s wins in North America and Europe, claiming that “the overall RAN market is now stabilizing, with strong growth in North America supporting a return to Networks sales growth in Q4”, and noting that Ericsson had “progressed well against our strategic plan and generated strong free cash flow.”
However, seeing year-on-year sales decline across all other regions will undoubtedly be cause for concern for Ericsson in the coming year, particularly given the scope for growth in less developed markets. The vendor noted that in 2025, it aims to stabilise commercial performance with its current portfolio while driving growth across areas such as mission critical and enterprise private networks.
