Stocks To Watch: Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) & Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)

Facebook introducing industry specific ads to boost sales

In its bid to improve sales from business customers, Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) has started to tailor advertising products to specific industry areas. In her interaction with reporters in New York yesterday, Carolyn Everson, the company’s vice president of global marketing solutions said that Facebook is focusing on advertising product design in the auto and telecommunications space and that it has already reoriented its sales staff to its new industry specific focus.

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“The most important thing to do is understand what a marketer wants to achieve and tailor a product to that,” she said, adding “What an automotive company needs in terms of national brand awareness to launch a car versus how they have to drive people to a dealer, and who the secondary players are in between, those are all very different product solutions.”

The Menlo Park company is offering a wide range of products to advertisers in its attempt to wean off potential customers from rivals like Google and Yahoo. Facebook sales growth which had risen 45 percent in the first quarter, fell 32 percent in the second quarter.

The Facebook stock closed at $22.27, up 1.3 percent on the NASDAQ yesterday. It has fallen 41 percent since its listing.

Nokia Siemens joint venture sells IPTV assets

The joint venture between Nokia Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:NOK) and Siemens AG, Nokia Siemens Networks, has sold some of its IPTV assets to Accenture PLC, the global consulting and outsourcing group. The size of the deal is not known.

Nokia has been having a difficult time on multiple fronts. Although it has teamed up with Microsoft to develop windows-based smartphones, it is still far behind Apple whose iPhone is extremely popular and other companies manufacturing smartphones that run on Google’s Android platform.

Nokia is trying to overcome some of its problems by cutting costs. One way of doing it disposing off superfluous assets; selling non-core businesses is another. Nokia is reportedly negotiating with Ericsson and other companies to sell its Business Support Service (BSS) unit.

Shares of NOK fell 5.50% in the previous trading session.