Ericsson has announced that its first-quarter sales declined by 4% to SEK51 billion (US$7.55 billion), impacted by an expected major decline in CDMA sales as well as lower operator network spending in regions with macro-economic or political uncertainty.

Net profit though more than doubled to SEK 8.8 billion (US$1.3 billion) - thanks to the one-off gain from the sale of the company's 50% stake in Sony Ericsson.

Operating income, excluding joint-ventures and gain from Sony Ericsson divestment, dropped to SEK 2.8 billion, from SEK 6.3 billion a year ago due to lower Networks sales and lower gross margin.

Gross margin was down at 33.3% from 38.5% a year ago. The YoY decrease is due to increased services share, network modernization projects in Europe and a higher proportion of coverage projects.

"Sales of high-performance mobile broadband developed well in North America, Japan and Korea, while other regions such as Europe including Russia, parts of Middle East and India were weaker," says Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. "CDMA continued its expected decline in the transition to LTE. Our services business showed continued momentum where especially Professional Services developed favorably. Support Solutions (former Multimedia) increased organic sales.

Total number of employees at the end of the quarter rose by 4,000 to 108,551. The total net addition is mainly related to the consolidation of Telcordia and expansion in the global service center in India.