When telecoms stop spending, stuff happens. Ericsson (ERICb.ST) the world’s biggest maker of mobile network equipment, reported a 94 percent drop in quarterly operating profit and falling sales on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The Sweden-based company is suffering from foreign competitors like Finland’s Nokia and China’s Huawei along with a drop in spending by telecom companies. Although 5G technology beckons, it is still years away from implementation.

Consequently, shares fell more than 15 percent to an eight year low in early trading, missing analysts’ forecasts for a fifth straight quarter.

Ericsson fired Hans Vestberg as CEO in July, but was slow to cut costs when compared to rivals Alcatel and Nokia, who merged recently.  A recent announcement regarding cutting thousands of jobs may have some positive effect but industry analysts are looking for a change at the top to stave off the company’s annihilation.

“Now the market is pressuring them for transformation and clarifying what they are, and what they need to do,” Gartner analyst Sylvain Fabre said to Reuters. “It’s a case of being a little more clear of what they want to do when they grow up.”

Acting CEO Jan Frykhammar was confident Ericsson could fight back, noting it had faced a similar situation in 2007-2009, when it was waiting for demand for 4G technology to kick in. “This is absolutely not the beginning of the end for Ericsson,” he said on a call with analysts and media.