

Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s phone business for $19B? - rmah
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/01/microsoft-strikes-deal-to-acquire-nokias-phone-business-insider-claims/

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ghurlman
The thread title is awfully linkbait-y for something that is a) just a rumor,
and b) coming from an "insider" that is significantly less than solid.

~~~
rmah
I would have kept the ", insider claims" from the article but HN wouldn't let
me

~~~
ghurlman
Might be worth throwing a "rumored to" or "maybe" into the headline if you
can.

~~~
rmah
OK, done.

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rmah
Quick update: Microsoft's head of communications said "no comment" when asked
about this. Nokia's CEO will be on CNBC later today. I'll update later based
on what he says.

~~~
panacea
Wall Street Journal: Nokia says reports of the Microsoft deal are “completely
baseless".

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cgranade
As thin as this article is, it's something that wouldn't surprise me a bit to
find out is true. MS practically bought out Nokia with the Elopoclypse, after
all.

~~~
recoiledsnake
What is this 'Elopoclypse' you speak of, can you elaborate?

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kenjackson
If I were MS I'd do this deal very differently than standard deals. It would
be contingent on a successfull rollout of Nokia phones, with success defined
as sales.

So the deal would be that they'd buy Nokia's phone division for some premium
(maybe $19B is that number) assuming that Nokia ships 5M phones in Q4 2011 and
20M phones H1 2012. If that happens the deal goes forward. Otherwise the deal
is killed.

I'd do it this way for a couple of reasons:

1) The Nokia brand run by Nokia has a lot of value. Not sure if MS owning the
brand hurts it. But if they can ship a solid phone that sells the disruption
to MS owning the brand is disminished.

2) Having this sort of incentive keeps Nokia hard at work until these phones
ship and sell. Otherwise, I'd fear an exodus of talent. Which even if it
doesn't effect the phones, may effect perception.

~~~
kenjackson
And if I may reply to myself :-)

This ties into my latest theory as to why Ballmer is in good standing with the
board for now: Nokia.

My theory is that Ballmer has a very solid relationship with Elop. Recall that
Elop did the odd thing of announcing he was going to Nokia, while still
President at MS. I can't recall many examples of that happening. Ballmer
must've been fine with it.

I suspect the Nokia partnership/acquisition is Ballmer's big play and the
board knows it. Viewed in that light the Skype acquisition and Nokia play are
the same deal (you don't do an $8.5B acquisition, while you're in the midst of
a huge Nokia play, unless you've tied them together).

The board likes the Nokia play and is seeing it through. If it works out,
Ballmer is there for a while. If it doesn't work out then Ballmer is gone.

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thepumpkin1979
Please somebody let me know if I missing something here but this is what
happens when a CEO is a totally incompetent. Five years later Nokia doesn't
have an iPhone alternative and the best shot is to sell yourself to _the enemy
of your enemy_ which I don't really think is a _enemy_ since Stephen Elop is a
former Microsoft Executive.

I mean, I like Windows Phone, Silverlight and XNA are awesome platforms, but
Symbian OS wasn't that bad...

and to do what?...

 _the two companies have already reached a deal to create new Windows Phone
devices, a dozen of which are expected to launch next year_

... a dozen phones? Don't get me wrong but if Nokia wanted to create more
segmentation between it's products why don't they join _Android party_ anyway?

~~~
recoiledsnake
>Please somebody let me know if I missing something here but this is what
happens when a CEO is a totally incompetent.

Which CEO are you talking about?

------
mikecane
If this turns out to be true... well, Nokia missed its damn chance by not
buying Palm when it still could. webOS would have gotten some real traction on
that famous Nokia hardware quality. It would have been a real Win-Win.

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Indyan
Another source independently corroborates this story: [http://techie-
buzz.com/mobile-news/microsoft-buying-nokia.ht...](http://techie-
buzz.com/mobile-news/microsoft-buying-nokia.html)

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goalieca
Nokia really fell behind this last generation and microsoft is not getting
anywhere with their diversification into other areas effort.

------
rmah
Update: A Nokia spokesman says the Microsoft rumor is baseless

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AJ007
Nokia's current market capitalization is over $25 billion.

~~~
rbanffy
It will surely drop below $19B when they start making only WP7 phones ;-)

Elop has barely arrived. Give the man some time.

~~~
recoiledsnake
So the new captain of the sinking ship is to blame if the ship sinks further a
little time after he took over?

Geez, I get your MS hate but this is stretching things.

~~~
rbanffy
Nobody gives much credibility to Elop's strategy of reviving Nokia's
smartphone business with WP7.

That didn't exactly help to stop the sinking ship.

We can't blame Elop for the years of suicide of Nokia - is is a consequence,
not a cause - but we can blame him for blowing a hole on the hull in a lunatic
attempt to make the ship float.

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KeyBoardG
Shens. Shame on BGR.

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SeanLuke
Nokia has a non-phone business?

~~~
astrodust
They used to make all kinds of stuff, like re-badged F5 product, software, and
servers. Also: Boots.

~~~
Vivtek
They started as a paper mill.

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programminggeek
This would be the smartest thing MSFT could do to make themselves relevant in
the phone space. They need to build their own hardware. If they don't they
will never get anywhere because HTC are building Android phones as fast/faster
than WP7 phones. They need to do the Xbox strategy and build a killer device
with their own killer software and then have 3rd parties line up to dev for
it.

It worked for Apple. It works for Nintendo and Sony. It works for Microsoft.

Why they continue to try the PC clone model when Android already has that
locked up is beyond me. It made sense to do the clone thing when you were
cloning IBM PCs for cheaper. Android is cloning iPhones "for cheaper".

I don't think you can have two competing "standards" in the same market for
commodity platforms. See HD-DVD, Betamax, MiniDisc, real media, and windows
media formats for details on how this usually works out.

~~~
mikecane
>>>I don't think you can have two competing "standards" in the same market for
commodity platforms.

iOS, Android, webOS, WindowsPhone. There's four. Do you really think that rule
applies here too? Of the four, I see only Android as becoming commodity
quickly.

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shareme
Some missing facts:

1\. Profit warning came about from two trends: -China CDMA, Nokia still does
not have devices -Low cost android phones eating Nokia Series 40 market

MS buying Nokia or Nokia licensing MS Phone does nothing to alleviate those
two trends...I get the impression that the division that got their vote on
Nokia acquiring mobile service firms stomped their feet as Nokia licensing Ms
Phone only protects the Nokia mobile services assets/market.

