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Nokia profits nearly double
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October 23, 1998: 11:21 a.m. ET
Finnish mobile phone maker says it's now the world's biggest, passing Motorola
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia reported a surge in performance in the third-quarter with profits before tax soaring 85 percent and sales jumping 62 percent, more than the market had expected.
Nokia (NOK.A) said its third-quarter sales of 20.1 billion markka ($4 billion) make it the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, edging Motorola off the top slot.
Profits before taxes hit 4.1 billion markka, or 4.84 per share, and 9.8 billion for the first nine months. That's up 75 percent from a year ago.
"These are extremely good results, much better than anyone had forecast," said Salomon Smith Barney technology analyst Douglas Smith.
The company said sales jumped in the U.S., Europe and China, and expects the number of mobile phone users to grow by 50 million by the end of the year.
"They had the right products at the right time," said Smith. "They had digital mobile phones, an attractive form factor, good performance at the proper price and with the right availability for the market. Their competitors did not."
Swedish mobile phone maker Ericsson (ERICY) reported an 11 percent rise in sales and profits that were up 17 percent Thursday, figures that were broadly in line with market expectations.
Motorola said earlier this month that its cellular products segment increased sales by 9 percent while Philips (PHG) canceled its telecom joint venture with Lucent Technologies (LU) Thursday.
"Based on our strong performance and preliminary market data for the first nine months in 1998, we now feel confident in declaring that we have significantly increased our market share in mobile phones to become the largest manufacturer of mobile phones worldwide," said Nokia President and CEO Jorma Ollila in a press release.
Smith said he expected the company to continue growth through the fourth-quarter but warned it would face a stiffer competition from new products launched by competitors in the new year.
In late afternoon trading Nokia was up 19.3 markka or 4.6 percent to 440.3 markka. 
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Nokia
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