Channel investors, Enterprise, MSP, Content

Nokia Managed Services Business for Sale? Private Equity May Have Interest, Report Indicates

BARCELONA, SPAIN – FEBRUARY 28: A logo sits illuminated outside the Nokia booth at the SK telecom booth on day 1 of the GSMA Mobile World Congress on February 28, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the world’s largest communications companies, with many unveiling their latest phones and wearables ga...

BARCELONA, SPAIN – FEBRUARY 28: A logo sits illuminated outside the Nokia booth at the SK telecom booth on day 1 of the GSMA Mobile World Congress on February 28, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the world’s largest communications companies, with many unveiling their latest phones and wearables gadgets like foldable screens. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Telecom and 5G equipment maker Nokia may sell its managed services business, and private equity firms may have interest in a potential deal, Bloomberg reported.

The Nokia managed services business, which generates about $510 million in annual revenue, offers network maintenance and data management services to communication service providers (CSPs), the report indicated.

Nokia Managed Services: Recent Business Moves

Nokia expanded its managed services in February 2022 with two new capabilities:

  1. Operations Transformation, a multi-year service with a focus on "guiding CSPs to enhance productivity and agility of their operations through cloudification and automation. "
  2. Operations Intelligence, which uses AI driven analytics to "precisely pinpoint issues, with the end goal of enabling CSPs to increase business outcomes like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and returns on their 5G investments."

    3. Nokia also offers managed security services -- including managed detection and response (MDR) for 5G security. The managed security services also span:

    • Assessment services;
    • Security infrastructure management;
    • Vulnerability management;
    • Secure configuration and hardening;
    • Audit and compliance management;
    • Security control lifecycle management; and
    • SW and application security services.

      • We don't know if the managed security services are part of the potential asset sale. Nokia did not comment about the Bloomberg report, and there's no guarantee that the managed services business unit will be sold, the report indicated.

      Nokia Business Turnaround Shows Progress

      Meanwhile, Nokia's overall business turnaround plan is on track to hit the higher end of its 2022 sales forecast, The Wall Street Journal reported. Among the recent business milestones: Revenues rose 11% to $6 billion in Q2 2022 vs. Q2 of 2021, the telecom equipment maker said.

      Joe Panettieri

      Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.

      Related

      You can skip this ad in 5 seconds