Lars Nyberg, 43-year-old native of Sweden, is leaving Europe and severing his long ties with that continent's premier electronics firm, Philips Electronics NV, to assume the helm of a company that has had serious trouble making a profit.
AT&T GIS reported a first-quarter loss of $143 million despite a 28 percentrevenue increase. It was the $8.4 billion unit's second-largest quarterly losssince AT&T acquired it in 1991.
The latest losses prompted at least one analyst to call AT&T GIS ``a dog with a capital D,'' according to the Wall Street Journal.
The unit essentially broke even in 1994, but suffered a $220 million loss in 1993. AT&T GIS has 46,000 employees, including 4,800 in the Dayton area. AT&T announced Nyberg's appointment Thursday. He replaces Jerre Stead, who resigned in January after 19 months as chairman and chief executive to become head of Legent Corp., a software developer based in Herndon, Va. Interim chiefexecutive William O'Shea will resume his role as senior vice president for worldwide marketing. Little has been written in the European or American press about Nyberg and his work at Philips. AT&T public relations did not even have a photo of him Thursday.
But according to the company, Nyberg comes to Dayton having competed against the former NCR Corp. in Europe and with a strong background in sales, marketing, operations and management.
Nyberg spent four years as chairman and chief executive of the communications systems division of Philips and nine years in the company's computer division, which focused on many of the same markets as the former NCRCorp., AT&T said.
He ``managed the turnaround of the Data Systems division, significantly improving its results,'' the company said. Philips sold the division to Digital Equipment Corp. in 1992.
``He had run the computer systems division (at Philips) at a very young ageand had a track record for greatly strengthening operations and the business' performance,'' said Harold W. Burlingame, who recruited Nyberg as senior vice president of human relations for AT&T. ``He is one of the most highly regardedexecutives in that company.''
What's more, Nyberg is an ``internationalist, and AT&T GIS is a company that is international.''
``He knows the technologies and the marketing and the strategies of GIS, that industry and all the changes going on there,'' Burlingame said. ``And he knows the communications industry.''
AT&T also wanted someone who could lead AT&T GIS for a long time and help broaden the entire corporation's market in Europe and elsewhere, Burlingame said. Nyberg will become a member of AT&T's Management Executive Committee andits global operations team.
Nyberg's task is clear.
Late last month, AT&T Chairman Robert E. Allen said he hasn't ruled out selling the business if it fails to perform as expected.
But ``under Lars' leadership, I believe GIS can meet the challenges it faces and make a valuable contribution to AT&T,'' Allen said Thursday.