Disgruntled Nokia Corp. shareholders have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, alleging that it knowingly misled investors about its share of the smartphone market.
According to the suit, the company “told investors that Nokia’s conversion to a Windows platform would halt its deteriorating position in the smartphone market.” But the company’s first-quarter sales did not meet expectations, and a glitch in its new smartphone—the Lumia 900—forced the company to offer customers $100 as compensation.
Overall, shares in the Finnish communications company have dropped 70 percent since it announced a switch from Symbian to Windows Phone last February.
Before a shareholder meeting last week, Nokia executives admitted that the company has struggled, but remained optimistic about its future prospects. "I am confident that Nokia has the right team, right strategy and now increasingly also the right products on the market to get us through this transition period," the company’s new chairman Risto Siilasmaa told reporters.
Nokia also says the charges are “without merit” and that it will defend itself against the suit.
