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Nokia eyes county for new office

Posted on: Monday, 8 March 2004, 06:00 CST

Nokia Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, has confirmed that it is considering Westchester and Connecticut's Fairfield County among possible sites for a new office it wants to open in the metropolitan area.

Nokia would create a new office for its chief financial officer, as well as for managers of its new enterprise solutions unit. The offices would also house most sales and marketing staffers from the North American operations of the company's multimedia unit, as well as some support staffers in information technology, human resources and other departments, said Keith Nowak, a Nokia spokesman.

"The office would grow to an eventual 100 to 150 people over the next two years. Not a huge presence, but a good-size office," Nowak said last week. "We expect the office will be up and running by mid- 2004."

Managers and employees would be transferred to the new New York- area office from the company's U.S. headquarters in Irving, Texas, and from other Nokia offices.

Nowak said Nokia has yet to formally narrow down where in the metro area it wants to locate the new office - though a Westchester official and several commercial real estate brokers not involved in the. search said the company is deciding between Westchester and Fairfield counties, and that a short list of sites was expected within days.

"It's getting down to the wire," said Salvatore J. Carrera, the county's director of economic development/real estate. "We're confident that we did what we. had to do with them."

Carrera said Nokia representatives have met twice with Westchester county officials since last fall, when the company circulated a blind e-mail message to economic development professionals seeking help in the search. Nokia is seeking about 50,000 square feet of space.

Carrera said the two meetings resulted from what he called his office's proactive approach to attracting and retaining businesses, as well as what he has identified in recent months as an uptick of international interest in Westchester office, space.

Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, Nokia has

about 55,000 employees - half of them based in Finland - and sales in 130 countries worldwide. In the United States, Nokia employs 6,600 people, primarily in Irving and nearby Fort Worth, Texas, as well as Mountain View, Calif.

The company announced plans to create a metropolitan area office on Dec, 17.

Nokia's office search is being handled by its longtime commercial real estate brokerage, Cushman & Wakefield. The firm helped Nokia move into its current U.S. headquarters, the three-building, 604,000- square-foot Nokia Campus completed in 1998,

FROM PAPER TO PHONES

Founded in 1865 as a paper and pulp mill operator, Nokia grow into a manufacturing giant during its first century in business. When the oil crises of the 1970s sent energy prices skyrocketing, Nokia entered a variety of technology businesses, including mobile phones in 1979.

Six years later, Nokia began selling its cell phones in the United States.

During the fourth quarter, Nokia's market share slipped to 33.6 percent of the world's mobile phones from 35 percent in the final three months of 2002, according to the quarterly Worldwide Mobile Phone QView survey released Feb. 4 by the global IT and telecommunications; consultancy IDC of Framingham, Mass.

However, Nokia commands more than double the market share of its newest competitor, Motorola (13.4 percent), and more than triple the share of numberthree Samsung (9.5 percent).

Nokia saw its net profits rise 9 percent last year over 2002, to almost 1.4 billion euros (about $1.8 billion) on sales of nearly 29.5 billion euros ($37.4 billion), down 2 percent due to currency rates.

Copyright Westfair Communications Feb 16, 2004

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