Ericsson Beats Expectations

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson posted an unexpectedly large first-quarter profit Friday, citing increasing demand from mobile phone operators expanding their networks.

The world's largest supplier of equipment for wireless phone networks reported a profit of 3 billion kronor ($390 million) for the January-March period compared with a loss of 4.3 billion kronor in the same period last year.

Analysts had expected the company to post pretax profits of about 3.2 billion kronor ($418 million). Its actual pretax profit was 4.3 billion kronor ($558.2 million).

Sales grew 9 percent to 28.1 billion kronor ($3.7 billion), led by high-growth markets such as China, Brazil and Mexico, the Stockholm-based company said.

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