Nokia 2004 Annual Report Download - page 106

On April 6, 2004, Irving Greenfeld filed suit against Nokia, Jorma Ollila, Pekka Ala-Pietil ¨ a, Matti
Alahuhta and Richard Simonson in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New
York on behalf of all purchasers of the Nokia’s stock between January 8, 2004 and April 6, 2004.
Subsequently, six individuals, Marc Abrams, Emery Chu, Zoe Myerson, Thomas Pflugbeil, Michael
Devine, and Donald L. Siefert, filed related actions, each alleging that the Nokia’s January 8, 2004
earnings guidance was materially misleading as allegedly revealed in the Nokia’s April 6, 2004
press release. In addition, the complaints alleged that the Nokia’s senior executives possessed
material adverse information about the success of Nokia’s reorganization and fraudulently failed
to disclose this information.
In September 2004, the Court appointed Generic Trading, Martin Bergljung and Gerald Hoberman
as Lead Plaintiffs and Milberg Weiss and Entwistle & Capucci as Lead Counsel.
On January 7, 2005, Lead Plaintiffs filed a Consolidated Class Action Complaint (the ‘‘Consolidated
Complaint’’), on behalf of all purchasers ‘‘worldwide’’ of Nokia securities during the class period.
The Consolidated Complaint expanded the original class period (January 8, 2004 through April 6,
2004) to October 16, 2003 through April 15, 2004. The Consolidated Complaint added two new
defendants, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and Anssi Vanjoki in addition to the four individual defendants
named in the initial complaint.
The Consolidated Complaint alleges principally that Nokia’s positive statements about its product
portfolio and the projections based thereon were false and misleading because Nokia knew that
there were substantial weaknesses in the product portfolio. The Consolidated Complaint also
alleges that Nokia employed accounting and inventory techniques that were allegedly used to
improperly manipulate sales figures.
While the matters alleged are under review, Nokia does not believe that the Lead Plaintiff’s claims
have merit and intends to vigorously defend itself.
Based upon the information currently available, management does not expect the resolution of
any of the matters discussed above to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or
results of operations.
We are also party to routine litigation incidental to the normal conduct of our business. Based
upon the information currently available, our management does not believe that liabilities related
to these proceedings, in the aggregate, are likely to be material to our financial condition or
results of operations.
8.A.8 See ‘‘Item 3.A Selected Financial Data—Distribution of Earnings’’ for a discussion of our
dividend policy.
8.B Significant Changes
No significant changes have occurred since the date of our consolidated financial statements
included in this Form 20-F. See ‘‘Item 5.D Trend Information.’’
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