Ericsson declined to comment on media speculation its CEO Borje Ekholm is set to be replaced after less than three years at the helm by outgoing CEO of Saab Group Hakan Buskhe.

When contacted by Mobile World Live, the company said: “The executive team is fully focused on implementing our focused strategy and building a stronger Ericsson in the long term,” adding the company would not comment on market rumour and speculation.

Earlier today (28 August) Reuters reported comments made to local press in Sweden claiming although Ekholm had taken the company out of a crisis, someone needed to come in to “move things along”.

Details on the reason for any change at the top of the vendor and Ekholm’s future are vague. However, the move would come as a surprise given Ericsson’s positive recent performance and apparent successful turnaround after being in serious trouble when he took the job in January 2017.

After taking over from interim boss Jan Frykhammar, Ekholm embarked on a series of deep cost-cuts in an attempt to reverse steep declines in its fortunes and refocus its business ahead of the expected boom from global deployments of 5G technology.

Ekholm’s rumoured replacement is the current CEO of military, security and defence company Saab Hakan Buskhe. The executive announced he would quit his role earlier this month and will depart Saab before February 2020.

In Saab’s announcement Buskhe said he wanted to “face another operational challenge in his career.”

Earlier this year Ericsson lost and replaced its CMO and last week announced a further change to its leadership team with a new head of its MEA division.