Nokia's long-serving management team is "due for new blood", analysts say

The firm said the decision by Sari Baldauf, a two-decade Nokia veteran, to leave on 1 February had been long known within the company.

Her move comes hard on the heels of a similar decision by JT Bergqvist, who runs the global networks business.

Ms Baldauf had been a contender to replace chief executive Jorma Ollila, whose contract runs out in 2006.

She had helped the company weather the downturn in the mobile market at the turn of the decade.

Her replacement will be Simon Beresford-Wylie, an Australian-born executive who joined Nokia in 1998 and is currently running the Asian networks business.

Although Nokia was keen to downplay the impending departure, analysts said the move was unwelcome

"Any way you look at this it is negative, because Baldauf is a star as is Bergqvist," Helena Nordman-Knutson of Ohman told Reuters.

She pointed out, however, that Nokia's long-serving management team was due for new blood.

Others suggested that even though the decision was not unexpected, the catalyst had been Nokia's failure to win its fair share of network deals from US mobile operator Cingular.