Nokia in $500 million fourth-quarter profit on strong sales, buoyed by North American market

After selling its ailing handset unit, Nokia has turned a fourth-quarter net profit of 443 million euros ($502 million) with sales increasing nearly 10 percent, partly buoyed by strong growth in North America.

The Finland-based company says revenue grew to 3.8 billion euros ($4.3billion) in the period. Last year, it reported a net loss of 26 million euros.

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri noted excellent network profitability with strong growth in all operations after selling its devices and services to Microsoft last year.

"We see 2015 as a year of execution," Suri said Thursday, adding that the company will continue to cut costs and invest.

Nokia said it expects annual sales to grow in 2015 in all three remain sectors; networks, mapping services and technologies and patents.