(Telecompaper) Nokia reported first-quarter sales from continuing operations up 20 percent from a year earlier to EUR 3.2 billion, with earnings per share improving by 25 percent to EUR 0.05 a share. First-quarter profit increased 65 percent to EUR 181 million from EUR 110 million in the previous year. Nokia attributed the results to strong performance at Nokia Technologies and its mapping business Here, with year on year sales at the two units up 103 percent and 25 percent respectively to EUR 266 million and EUR 261 million. However, good growth at its main telecom networks division was offset by plummeting profitability, helping to explain why the company agreed to buy rival Alcatel-Lucent earlier this month in a proposed EUR 15.6 billion deal. First quarter sales at Nokia Solutions and Networks were up 15 percent to EUR 2.67 billion, driven by a 47 percent increase in North America and a 31 percent rise in China. However, core operating profit at the unit fell 61 percent from a year ago to EUR 85 million, or 3.2 percent of sales, compared to 9.3 percent a year earlier. Nokia said profits dropped due to lower software sales, higher research and development costs and challenging conditions in Europe and Latin America, not to mention what it described as "strategic entry deals". The company said it expected some of the negative factors to ease in the second half of 2015 and forecast full-year operating margin at the unit to be around the midpoint of its long-term target of 8 percent to 11 percent.