Ericsson CEO: Post-Marconi focus is internal

NEW YORK CITY--Ericsson President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg told analysts at an investors conference here that following its recent agreement to acquire most of the assets of Marconi, the Swedish company is not poised to go on an acquisition binge.

"Every time you acquire and bring in a new company, you also mess with your organization a little bit," he told an audience of about 200 analysts and media at the W Hotel in Manhattan. "It's all worth it--it adds value, as was the case with Marconi. I think you also saw that with Cingular acquiring AWS."

He said Ericsson was unlikely to engage in a merger with another major infrastructure vendor. "The focus for us right now is really internal," he told Telephony in an interview before the investor conference. Svanberg also was in town to make a presentation at Nasdaq, and to press the button opening Nasdaq market trading this morning.