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Ericsson to close down telecom cable manufacturing

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — (Marketwired) — 05/21/13 —

* Primarily impacts operations in Hudiksvall and Stockholm in Sweden;
notice
of reduction of 318 positions in Hudiksvall

* Union negotiations initiated; expected to be completed during the third
quarter 2013. No individual notice of termination will be given before
August

* Ericsson initiates the closure of its development and production of
cables
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today initiated union negotiations to close down
its
telecom cables operation within business unit Networks.

As the market for copper cable has declined and the market for fiber cable
has
grown over the last years, the production has shifted towards Asia, where
the
majority of the business volumes for fiber cable are found. In Europe there
is
more production than demand for both copper and fiber cables.

Tomas Qvist, head of Special Products in business unit Networks, and head
of
Human Resources for Ericsson in Sweden, says: “It is a tough message to
bring to
our colleagues in the telecom cable operations in Hudiksvall and Stockholm
today. The decision is based on the fact that Ericsson-s production of
telecom
cables is small from a global perspective, and that we also have a small
market
share. There is overproduction on the cable market in Europe.
Unfortunately, our
production has not been operating at full capacity for a long time and has
struggled with profitability.”

The announcement primarily impacts the operations in Hudiksvall and
Stockholm. A
notice of reduction of 318 positions in Hudiksvall is given, and a dialog
with
the unions in Stockholm for how to close down 36 positions in Stockholm is
initiated.

Net sales for telecom cables operations in 2012 amounted to approximately
SEK 1
billion.

The current best estimate is that today-s announcement will generate
restructuring charges of about SEK 0.5 billion. With the current time plan,
approximately half will impact of business unit Networks- operating income
in
the second quarter 2013. The rest will impact Networks- operating income in
the
third quarter 2013.

Ericsson invites members of the press today, May 21, at 4 pm CET to
Kabelvägen
1 in Hudiksvall. Tomas Qvist will be available to answer questions.
Today-s information does not impact the process for the divestment of the
power
cables operations to NKT Cables announced on May 3, 2013.

NOTES TO EDITORS

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Ericsson is a world-leading provider of communications technology and
services.
We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions
that
allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable
societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within
Information
and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries.
Today
40 percent of the world-s mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and
we
support customers- networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscriptions.
We are more than 110,000 people working with customers in more than 180
countries. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
In
2012 the company-s net sales were SEK 227.8 billion (USD 33.8 billion).
Ericsson
is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

Ericsson to close down telecom cable manufacturing:

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Source: Ericsson via Thomson Reuters ONE

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