Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)

Verizon announced the expansion of its 6G Innovation Forum with nine new members and reported successful pre-standard field trials of Integrated Sensing and Communication and an AI Sports Companion prototype. Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI Solutions have officially joined the forum, which was launched last year and already includes founding members Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Meta and Qualcomm Technologies. In one trial staged at a major international soccer celebration in Dallas, Texas, Verizon and Samsung used a single 5G base station and 40MHz of CBRS spectrum to track radio variations from six Samsung Galaxy smartphones, with Samsung's AI RAN and edge AI platform Network in a Server generating real-time crowd-density heatmaps on commercial phones and a tablet. In a second trial at Qualcomm's San Diego campus, the companies used 100 to 400MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum and four synchronized Transmission and Reception Points to track an airborne drone and moving ground vehicles while maintaining uninterrupted 5G Standalone communications to a phone user on the ground. Verizon also showcased a prototype AI Sports Companion application running on the Verizon Edge Network with Meta AI glasses, a locally optimized Small Language Model, an NVIDIA DGX Spark and statistics from SportsDataIO, letting users ask verbally for real-time player statistics, live score interpretations and game-winning probabilities. Verizon said forum members will continue sharing learnings from future demonstrations involving ISAC, digital twins, robotics, AI and advanced wearables, and it views the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as the ultimate interim proving ground on the road to commercial 6G deployment, supported by its dedicated 6G Lab already established in the host city.

Ericsson repurchased 2.85 million of its own Class B shares between August 31 and September 4, 2026, as part of its ongoing buyback program. The total transaction value for the week was 275,924,950 Swedish kronor, with daily volumes ranging from 250,000 to 750,000 shares. These repurchases are part of a larger program of up to 15 billion Swedish kronor announced on April 16, 2026, which runs until March 31, 2027. Following these transactions, Ericsson holds 105,668,676 Class B shares in treasury, out of a total of 3,371,351,735 shares outstanding. The buybacks were executed on Nasdaq Stockholm by Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE on behalf of Ericsson.

FIS and Ericsson announced a collaboration to help organizations launch wallet-led financial services faster by integrating FIS payments and issuing capabilities with the Ericsson Fintech Platform into a single pre-integrated foundation. The partnership aims to reduce the complexity of connecting systems for moving, storing, securing, and managing money at scale, enabling clients to deploy digital wallet experiences more quickly. Ericsson's platform, with over 15 years of operational experience, supports more than 131 million active 90-day users and processes approximately $80 billion in monthly transaction value across 24 countries. FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris and Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm both emphasized the potential to remove integration barriers and accelerate innovation in the converging fields of connectivity and finance.

Ericsson repurchased 2.15 million of its own Class B shares between August 24 and August 28, 2026, as part of its ongoing buyback program. The total transaction value for the week was 208,051,855 Swedish kronor, with a weighted average price of 96.7683 kronor per share. These repurchases are part of a larger program of up to 15 billion kronor announced on April 16, 2026, which runs until March 31, 2027. The company intends to propose canceling the repurchased shares, except those used for incentive programs, at the 2027 annual general meeting. Following these transactions, Ericsson holds 102,818,676 Class B shares in treasury.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson repurchased 2,500,000 Class B shares during the period August 10 through August 14, 2026, at a weighted average price of 96.7017 Swedish kronor per share, for a total transaction value of 241,754,225 kronor. The buybacks are part of a share repurchase program of up to 15,000,000,000 kronor announced on April 16, 2026, running between April 23, 2026, and March 31, 2027. The Board of Directors intends to propose at the 2027 Annual General Meeting that repurchased shares, other than those used for share-related incentive programs, be cancelled. All acquisitions were carried out on Nasdaq Stockholm by Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE on behalf of Ericsson. Following the repurchases, Ericsson's holding of treasury stock amounts to 97,669,316 Class B shares, out of a total of 3,371,351,735 shares, comprising 261,755,983 Class A shares and 3,109,595,752 Class B shares.

Tampa Electric Company has chosen Ericsson, OneLayer and Burns & McDonnell to deploy, manage and secure its expanding private LTE network. The utility, an early adopter of private LTE among U.S. investor-owned electric companies, is expanding its Mission Critical Network built on Ericsson LTE technology to support tens of thousands of connected devices over the next five years, with several thousand in the first phase. OneLayer’s Bridge platform provides SIM lifecycle management, device integration and real-time visibility, while Burns & McDonnell handles integration with existing operational technology systems. The deployment includes automated provisioning, network segmentation and geofencing to control device interactions as the infrastructure scales.

AT&T has chosen Ericsson to supply 600 MHz dual-band radios that will put newly acquired spectrum from EchoStar to work across its nationwide wireless network. The 600 MHz spectrum travels farther and penetrates buildings better than higher-frequency bands, improving coverage in urban and rural areas as well as indoors. AT&T is more than 60% through its network modernization, and in upgraded areas customers are seeing up to a 2x improvement in average speeds, a 10% reduction in dropped and blocked calls, and up to 70% fewer instances of slower data speeds. The Ericsson radios also enable AT&T to deploy 8RX technology on low bands for the first time, reducing uplink interference by up to 80% and strengthening performance for AI-driven applications. The capital investments are included in AT&T’s second-quarter 2026 financial outlook, with further deployment details to be announced later.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson repurchased 8,515,000 of its own Class B shares between July 20 and July 24, 2026, at a weighted average price of SEK 93.4662 per share, for a total transaction value of SEK 795,864,648.50. The buybacks are part of a share repurchase program of up to SEK 15,000,000,000 announced on April 16, 2026, running from April 23, 2026, to March 31, 2027, at the latest. All acquisitions were executed on Nasdaq Stockholm by Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE on Ericsson's behalf. Following the repurchases, Ericsson holds 87,669,316 Class B shares as treasury stock, out of a total of 3,371,351,735 shares, comprising 261,755,983 Class A and 3,109,595,752 Class B shares. The Board intends to propose cancellation of repurchased shares not used for incentive programs at the 2027 Annual General Meeting.

AT&T is pivoting its growth strategy toward fiber, 5G and business network services, moving away from legacy media and video assets. In the second quarter of 2026, the company recorded over 1 million advanced connectivity net additions, including 646,000 Internet net additions and 432,000 postpaid phone net additions, with 367,000 fiber customer additions and a 29.5% year-over-year rise in advanced home Internet connections. The convergence rate reached 42.5%, meaning a growing share of Internet customers also hold an AT&T postpaid wireless plan, which management says halves churn and delivers a high-single-digit average revenue per account uplift. AT&T’s 5G strategy complements fiber, using millimeter-wave, mid-band and low-band spectrum to extend advanced Internet services to more than 90 million customer locations, while adding 279,000 fixed wireless customers in the quarter. The company is also positioning for AI-ready networks with over 20 metro mobile edge computing zones live and more than 150 active private 5G and edge trials, and plans to acquire EchoStar’s 600 MHz spectrum to strengthen low-band uplink capacity. On the efficiency front, AT&T aims to move 70% of wireless network traffic across open-capable platforms by late 2026 using Ericsson technology, targeting $4 billion in annual cost savings by the end of 2028. The stock carries a Zacks Rank of 3, or Hold, with a Value Score of A but a Growth Score of D and Momentum Score of F, reflecting a favorable valuation profile but weaker earnings growth and price trend signals.

Ericsson has appointed Christophe Van de Weyer as Head of Business Area Global Communications Platform and CEO of Vonage, effective August 15, 2026, succeeding Niklas Heuveldop who is stepping down. Van de Weyer, who joined Vonage in 2025 and currently leads its Business Unit API, will also join Ericsson's Executive Team. Heuveldop will remain available through December 31, 2026 to support the transition, after a tenure that included restructuring Vonage and restoring its growth, as well as leading Ericsson's North American market share expansion including the USD 14 billion network transformation deal with AT&T. Van de Weyer previously served as CEO of Telesign and held senior roles at Proximus and Bain & Company.

Ericsson reported second-quarter net sales of SEK 52.7 billion, a 6% reported decline and a 1% organic decline year over year, while adjusted gross margin improved to 48.4% from 48.0%. Adjusted EBITA margin edged down to 13.1% from 13.2%, and net income fell to SEK 4.1 billion from SEK 4.6 billion. IPR licensing revenues dropped to SEK 3.4 billion from SEK 4.9 billion due to a prior-year settlement, but the company reached an annualized IPR run rate of SEK 13.5 billion after signing new agreements in July. Networks segment sales declined 8% reported to SEK 33 billion, while Cloud Software and Services grew 5% organically to SEK 14.7 billion with an adjusted EBITA margin of 12.4%, a new high. Enterprise sales fell 19% reported, largely from the iconectiv divestment. Free cash flow before M&A was SEK 0.4 billion, weighed by a SEK 5 billion inventory build-up of finished goods for planned third-quarter deliveries. For the third quarter, Ericsson expects Networks sales growth above the three-year average quarter-over-quarter seasonality and an adjusted gross margin of 48% to 50%, reflecting a higher share of rollout projects. Management flagged rising component costs, particularly in semiconductors, as a growing headwind and is pursuing price increases, product redesigns, and cost actions to mitigate the impact.

AT&T and Ericsson have demonstrated drone detection using advanced network sensing over a 5G network outside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The demonstration, conducted during a major global sporting event, used Ericsson's Massive MIMO radios across multiple cellular towers to create a multi-static sensing configuration that detected, located, and tracked multiple drones flying at altitudes between 300 and 400 feet. The technology combined sensing-enabled radio transmissions with AI-enabled algorithms to generate real-time metrics including location, velocity, and elevation, showing how existing network infrastructure can be transformed into a distributed sensing platform without additional standalone sensors. The companies view this as an early step toward 6G capabilities, with plans to continue exploring integrated sensing and communication ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles global sporting event.

Vonage, part of Ericsson, has launched the Vonage Protection Suite for Okta, a pre-built, self-service connector that enables Okta's enterprise customers to send one-time passwords with integrated advanced fraud protection powered by the mobile network. The solution combines Vonage Verify's intelligent routing and delivery with fraud protection through Identity Insights and Fraud Defender, validating phone numbers before OTP delivery to detect high-risk or compromised numbers and providing real-time fraud protection during delivery. It includes automatic SMS-to-Voice fallback, intelligent carrier routing, and automatic sender ID management for regulatory compliance. Available now through the Vonage Cloud Runtime Marketplace across more than 200 countries, the connector allows organizations to go from setup to first OTP delivery in minutes without custom development.

Ericsson has completed a low latency mobility trial with AT&T and MediaTek, while continuing its share buyback program through March 2027. The stock recently traded at SEK105.55, with a 30-day decline of 12.77% but a year-to-date gain of 19.54% and a three-year total shareholder return of 103.97%. Analysts see fair value around SEK98.62, suggesting the stock is overvalued, though its price-to-earnings ratio of 13.9 times is well below the European Communications industry average of 29.8 times and the peer group average of 47.2 times. The company's positioning in 5G and edge computing is expected to benefit from rising AI-driven data traffic, but risks include geopolitical disruptions and potential underperformance in software and services.

AT&T shares traded higher by approximately 2% on Tuesday following the completion of North America's first in-field trial of enhanced mobility features tied to Ericsson's 5G Advanced Critical IoT subscription. The trial, conducted with Ericsson and MediaTek, demonstrated that Ericsson's Low-Latency Mobility feature set reduced data interruption during cell changes by up to 25% versus legacy Layer 3 mobility, aiming for faster, more reliable handovers and steadier data rates for devices in motion. The stock's advance defied a price-target cut from Morgan Stanley, where analyst Simon Flannery lowered his outlook to $25 from $30 while maintaining an Overweight rating. AT&T shares were up 1.99% at $20.99 at the time of publication, though the stock remains 5.3% below its 20-day simple moving average and 12% below its 50-day simple moving average. The next major catalyst is the July 22, 2026 earnings report, with analysts expecting earnings of 59 cents per share on revenue of $31.83 billion.

Ericsson repurchased 6,116,402 Class B shares for a total of 675,701,000.06 Swedish kronor during the period June 22 to June 26, 2026, as part of its share buyback program of up to 15 billion kronor announced on April 16, 2026. The program runs from April 23, 2026, to March 31, 2027, at the latest, and the board intends to propose cancellation of repurchased shares not used for incentive programs at the 2027 Annual General Meeting. All acquisitions were carried out on Nasdaq Stockholm by Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE on behalf of Ericsson. Following the repurchases, Ericsson holds 63,998,958 treasury Class B shares out of a total of 3,371,351,735 shares, comprising 261,755,983 Class A and 3,109,595,752 Class B shares.

The global cellular IoT market is projected to grow from $9.09 billion in 2025 to $86.55 billion by 2035, at a compound annual growth rate of 25.4%, according to a report by SNS Insider. Hardware dominated the market in 2025, while the software segment is the fastest growing, driven by AI-enabled IoT platforms. North America held over 32% of the market in 2025, with the U.S. market alone valued at $2.91 billion and expected to reach $27.70 billion by 2035. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing, led by China's large-scale NB-IoT deployments under government mandates. Key players include Qualcomm, Ericsson, Huawei, AT&T, and Verizon.

Ericsson Canada has been named one of Canada's Top International Corporate Citizens by Corporate Knights, ranking fifth overall on the 2026 list. The recognition follows a year of landmark partnerships, including a USD 3 billion, three-year collaboration with Export Development Canada to expand Canadian-led R&D in 5G, Cloud RAN, AI, and quantum innovation, which has since grown to encompass dual-use defence technologies. Ericsson also signed an MOU with Saab and Calian on dual-use innovation, invested $1 million in a three-year partnership with the University of Toronto for AI-powered mobile communications research, and launched the Advanced Wireless Communications Innovation Network with the Government of Canada as a first-of-its-kind national platform for dual-use 5G trials. The company's expanded Strategic Innovation Fund agreement, valued at CAD 630 million in 2024, directs investment into 5G Advanced, 6G, Cloud RAN, AI-powered network management, and quantum communications research while supporting collaborations with more than 20 Canadian post-secondary institutions. Ericsson Canada averages more than CAD 400 million per year in R&D spending and has deepened its commitment to sustainability through initiatives such as joining the Government of Canada's Net Zero Challenge.

The Linux Foundation announced the formation of the Appia Foundation under the Joint Development Foundation to establish modular open source specifications and standardized conformity assessment frameworks across the global AI value chain. The Appia Foundation delivers an open connecting layer that provides testing criteria, evaluation guidelines, and component typologies to verify and audit safe, trusted AI models, systems, and applications. Initial members include Arm, Armilla AI, Ericsson, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Naaia, Nemko, Omron, OpenAI, Schneider Electric, and Siemens. The specification architecture is designed for functional modularity and evidence pass-through, enabling seamless reuse of conformity evidence across the value chain while maintaining clear accountability boundaries. The foundation aims to help organizations reduce complexity, lower operational costs, and build trust as international standards and legal frameworks become more established.