Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) (ERIC) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

April 18, 2023 3:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's presentation of the first quarter in 2023. With me today here in the studio, I have Carl Mellander, our Chief Financial Officer; and with me on a link from North America, I have Börje Ekholm, our President and CEO. So as usual, we will start this session with a presentation, and then we will end the hour with a Q&A session.

And in order to ask questions, you have to join this conference by phone. Details on that can be found in today's press release as well as on our website, ericsson.com/investors. Please also be advised that today's conference call is recorded.

Before handing over to Börje and Carl, I would like to say the following. During today's presentation, we will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations and certain planning assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that actual results may differ materially due to factors mentioned in today's press release and discussed in this conference call. We encourage you all to read about these risks and uncertainties in the earnings report published today as well as in our annual report.

With that, I would like to hand over to you, Börje. So please, Börje.

Börje Ekholm

Okay. Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone. And a big thank you for joining us today. So we're excited to present the quarter in which we're executing on our strategy and we're making progress on our strategic goals, while at the same time delivering on what we set out as expectations for this first quarter. But before I go into the quarterly results, let me take this opportunity to just comment a bit on the news that we sent out last night. After having been almost 7 years on Ericsson's executive team and 25 years with Ericsson, Carl will actually be leaving our company. And it's no exaggeration to say that Carl has been critical in the turnaround of Ericsson and in laying the foundation for the next chapter of our strategy. And he's also been a great colleague and, of course, a great friend.

Now we have come to a mutual agreement that it's a good time or as good as any for a change at Ericsson as we continue, I'll call it a next chapter in our strategic journey. But I'm, of course, very happy that he will stay on in his role until the end of Q1 next year. And of course, that will ensure that we can execute on our cost savings but also a smooth transition. So really a big thank you to Carl for all his achievements and contributions here at Ericsson. You will be truly missed not only by me but all my colleagues at Ericsson. So a big thank you. And anything, Carl, at this point, you would like to comment on?