It's well-known that the 2009 NHL draft class contains a lot of good Swedish players. The 1991s have long been known as a good cohort, one that probably won't be matched for decades. For more information see Hockeys Future article.

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson announced on Thursday that CFO Hans Vestberg would take over as CEO of the company in 2010. For further information see The Local article.

British energy giant BP on Thursday poached Ericsson boss Carl-Henric Svanberg to be its new chairman from 2010 as the company seeks to overcome tumbling profits caused by slumping oil prices. The selection of Svanberg, who revived Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson during his seven years at the helm, followed a lengthy search to replace Peter Sutherland. For more information see Yahoo News article.

Following the trimming of 30% of its U.S. staff last week, News Corp.'s MySpace social network announced on Tuesday that it will additionally lay off two-thirds of its international workforce and close at least four of its offices abroad. The company, which recently saw its monthly traffic fall below that of Palo Alto-based rival Facebook for the first time, will now count around 150 employees outside of the U.S. MySpace said that its offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden are now under review for possible restructure or closure. For more information see MySpace Press-release.

SoftwareCEO.com have a great article on how software execs can gain a lot from the social networking site LinkedIn. With 40+ million business people for members, you can use LinkedIn to find employees, contractors, business partners, prospects, and clients. And can work at it gradually, without it swallowing your entire week. For more information see SoftwareCEO.com article.

Nokia has agreed to partner with Intel to put its chips in the Finnish phone maker's products, according to a report from Bloomberg. For more information see Forbes article.

On Tuesday, General Motors made it official. The bankrupt behemoth has signed a memorandum of understanding that, if all goes according to plan, takes Saab ownership back to Sweden. For more information see MarketWatch article.

Norwegian browser maker Opera Software has had more success with the mobile market and European antitrust regulators than with its share of desktop users (around 1 or 2 percent in English-speaking markets). Now it’s hoping to drive adoption by turning the browser into a vehicle suitable for two-way traffic. For more information see Good Morning Silicon Valley article.

Kari-Pekka Wilska has joined BlueRun Ventures (formerly known as Nokia Venture Partners) of Menlo Park and Helsinki. He previously was a venture partner with Austin Ventures, where he served on the boards of companies like 724 Solutions, BrightPoint, Mavenir Systems, Paragon Wireless and PulseWave RF. Prior to joining Austin Ventures in 2005, Wilska spent more than 20 years with Nokia. For more information see VentureWire article.

Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg and Norwegian investors have struck a preliminary deal to buy General Motors' Swedish unit Saab, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. For more information see Reuters article and Dagens Nyheter article (in Swedish).

Asetek of Norway and San Jose, a developer of liquid cooling products used in high-end PCs, on Thursday named David Somo as its vice president of worldwide sales. Somo most recently served as the senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Celerity, and previously was the vice president of strategic account sales at AMD. For more information see Asetek press-release.

Scatec Solar of Oslo Norway, a supplier of solar PV solutions, has established its first subsidiary in the U.S., in Mountain View, Calif. Concurrently, the company signed a power purchase agreement with a large winery in Sonoma, Calif., in which the company has agreed to buy all the electricity produced by 500 kW PV rooftop system.

"We are in the process of building a strong U.S. team, with very strong market knowledge and execution capabilities," says Ravi Khanna, president and CEO of Scatec Solar. "With our ability to leverage on our substantial European PV experience, we see ourselves very well positioned to take substantial market share as the U.S. solar market takes off." For further information see Scatec Solar Press-Release.

A new report Wednesday shows that while Silicon Valley is the predominant technology center in North America, several other metro areas are gaining strength. For more information see Milken Institute research report.

Silicon Vikings started a group on LinkedIn last summer. Over 700 of our members are now connected on our LinkedIn group.

Joining will allow you to leverage the power of the Silicon Vikings network to find and contact other Silicon Vikings members on LinkedIn. The goal of this group is to help Silicon Vikings members:

• Reach other members of Silicon Vikings group at LinkedIn
• Accelerate careers/business through referrals from Silicon Vikings group members
• Know more than a name – view rich professional profiles from fellow Silicon Vikings group members

Those 300 plus Silicon Vikings members with LinkedIn accounts that have not yet joined SV's group at LinkedIn are invited to join the group. Simply check your LinkedIn messages and accept the invitation from Silicon Vikings.

For Silicon Vikings members without a LinkedIn account we suggest you set-up your profile on LinkedIn (free of charge). Then look for the Silicon Vikings group at LinkedIn and join the group. You are pre-approved with the email address you use at Silicon Vikings.

We look forward to have all Silicon Vikings members also becoming members of the Silicon Vikings group on LinkedIn.

Christian Science Monitor just ran an article about Sweden from another angle. It is not about Sweden as a socialist nightmare, but rather a bastion of market capitalism. It is clearly a simplified view but never the less a great contrast. Read more at Christian Science Monitor article.

For the fourth time, Forbes Magazine has published its annual Best Countries for Business ranking. For the second straight year Denmark has taken first place.… The top ten countries are:

1. Denmark
2. United States
3. Canada
4. Singapore
5. New Zealand
6. United Kingdom
7. Sweden
8. Australia
9. Hong Kong
10. Norway

For more information see Forbes article.

Interesting blog article from Anders Frick's blog. Netanel “Net” Jacobsson, previously with Facebook and before that a Ericsson in Lund, gives some great tips for entrepreneurs who wan to succeed in Silicon Valley. To read more see Anders Frick's blog aricle (in Swedish).