Ericsson writes down $1.5 billion resulting in big Q1 2017 loss

Ericsson’s numbers for the first quarter of 2017 featured a massive set of write-downs as the company looked to get as much financial bad news out in the open as possible.
The SEK 13.4 billion (~$1.5 billion) of assorted write-downs and restructuring charges had been forewarned in the recent Ericsson strategy update, but it still makes for ugly reading in the cold light of year-on-year comparisons. Net income for the quarter was SEK -10.9 billion, which is clearly unsustainable.
And the gr