
Nokia acquired by Microsoft - jasonpbecker
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2013/09/02/the-next-chapter-an-open-letter-from-steve-ballmer-and-stephen-elop.aspx
======
rayiner
This is a great move. There is no money in being an Android vendor except if
you're Samsung and are totally vertically integrated. With Windows Phone,
Nokia and Microsoft at least have some hope of carving out a profitable stake
in the market.

Anecdotally, I'm very impressed with some of the new Lumias. I got a 620 to
replace my stolen iPhone, and for $200 unlocked its phenomenal phone. The
build quality makes a flagship Samsung feel like cheap plastic crap. And
Windows Phone flies despite the modest specs. I was disappointed in the 920 I
had earlier, but at this price point the shoe is on the other foot.

I hope this is portends a Microsoft phone...

~~~
corresation
_There is no money in being an Android vendor except if you 're Samsung and
are totally vertically integrated._

There are a lot of people who would have picked up the attractive, well built,
well engineered Nokia devices if they had the platform of Android.

The core problem with the "no money in Android" argument is that you can't
choose _not_ to compete with Android if you're in the smartphone game, which
is pretty obvious given that we're talking about a company that went from hero
to zero largely at the hands of Android (RIM being another example).

WP8 just isn't compelling compared to Android for a lot of users, which led to
a lot of people moaning that they wish they could get one of those nice Nokia
devices...but WP7/8.... Apple obviously is very much in a battle with Android,
though they're in a much better position, and it's one that Microsoft isn't
going to be able to emulate bringing hardware in house (especially given that
it was already effectively in house. This new arrangement changes essentially
nothing, but makes official what people long assumed).

~~~
macspoofing
>There are a lot of people who would have picked up the attractive, well
built, well engineered Nokia devices if they had the platform of Android.

Yeah maybe. There is no guarantee that the outcome would have been more
favorable than being bought out by Microsoft.

>Apple obviously is very much in a battle with Android ...

Apple already lost to Android. Last count, Android had 80% of the market.
There is zero chance of that changing anytime soon. Apple's saving grace is
that they can cut themselves a nice little niche, and make some good margins
based on the strength of their brand much like they do with Macs. This will be
doubly true if HTML pushes out native apps and and makes the platform largely
superfluous again. The war is over however.

~~~
hippee-lee
Can we not talk about this in terms of war and battle? It is the business of
selling consumer electronics, same as it has always been. You do explain your
position well but I feel the references to war and battle water it down.

No one has been killed in the development of phones. I get that the MBA crowd
read the art of war and it's practical knowledge seeped into popular
discussion. But the endless reference to war in consumer electronics (and
other areas not really war) is tedious and uninformative.

~~~
corresation
Whatever your personal hangups are, words such as "battle" (an extended
contest, struggle, or controversy) and "war" (a struggle or competition
between opposing forces or for a particular end) are entirely and absolutely
appropriate for such discussions.

Your comment borders on bizarre.

~~~
hippee-lee
No personal hang ups. Just expressing an opinion on the use of words that I
think are overused and therefore watered down in today's environment. You
clearly have a different take on it. No need to belittle me for my opinion.

------
throwawaykf02
There was some credible speculation back then that Google bought up Mototorola
because its CEO threatened patent warfare with other Android manufacturers,
something Google _really_ did not want happening.

Along similar lines, I speculate that Microsoft snapped up Nokia because they
threatened starting an Android line of phones.

I think there's a significant business lesson in here somewhere... Something
along the lines off "partner with a giant, then become dangerous to it"

Funnily enough, MS also gets a nice patent bonus along with its purchase as
Google did with Motorola. However, I think Nokia's patent portfolio is much,
much more powerful than Motorola's. This is for three reasons, two publicly
evident and one anecdotal:

1) Apple admitted defeat in its patent fight with Nokia, something it hasn't
done with anybody else;

2) Nokia has multiple patent lawsuits ongoing, and none of them involve
standards essential patents, the one thing most likely to invoke the ire of
the antitrust gods;

3) A previous boss of mine knew the head of Nokia R&D in America, and he
regaled me with stories of smartphone apps they had working in their labs way
back in 2006 that made me go "how the hell do they do that?" Unfortunately,
any two-bit app developer can do those things today on any modern smartphone
platform using publicly documented API. But I am still curious about what
goodies they have hidden away in their labs today.

~~~
Anechoic
_I speculate that Microsoft snapped up Nokia because they threatened starting
an Android line of phones._

Remember that MS makes money off Android phones.

 _MS also gets a nice patent bonus along [..] Apple admitted defeat in its
patent fight with Nokia, something it hasn 't done with anybody else_

Apple has (well _had_ but I'd bet dollars to donuts it was renewed) a patent
cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft so this could be a win for Apple as
well.

~~~
corresation
_Remember that MS makes money off Android phones._

Purportedly. I engaged in a debate on here before which involved trying to
find the supposedly enormous sums of money that Microsoft makes from Android
in their quarterly financial statements. At best it has to amount to what
would be chump change to a company like Microsoft.

Instead we hear about supposed agreements where vendors _who all happen to
also be Windows Phone makers_ pay some unknown sum to Microsoft, which for all
we know is used towards their WP licensing.

If Nokia released Android phones it would been devastating to Microsoft's
mobile platform. It would have ruined it.

~~~
throwawaykf02
I think people dug into their latest earnings and made a case that MS did make
a few hundred mil on Android phone licenses.

But you're right: it's chump change to MS, and Nokia putting out even a single
Android phone would have been a huge blow to MS.

------
tytso
One thing which I haven't seen anyone mention yet. Nokia, like Skype, was a
non-US company, which means Microsoft could use cash which is trapped in
Europe.

So you have to take the purchase price and discount it by as much as the US
Corporate tax rate (which Microsoft would have to pay if the money was going
to be repatriated back to the States, as would be needed if that cash was
going to be used to pay dividends or to purchase a company based in the US).

~~~
simba-hiiipower
yeah, in one of their releases they specifically mention the transaction will
be completed using offshore funds.

and while i'd generally like to see some movement on policy to encourage large
us-based multinationals to bring-home more of their offshore earnings (for
reinvestment domestically), the current environment does play-out nicely for
foreign m&a - which is at-least (in my opinion) a better use of funds than
dividends and buybacks.

~~~
shubb
Money from work and sales outside the US should be repatriated and invested
domestically, just because the company is notionally based in the US?

Sounds a tad imperialistic?

I think getting companies pay tax in the US for sales in the US would be less
internationally antisocial...

~~~
WildUtah
Remember that no other developed country besides the USA requires that local
companies pay local tax again on foreign profits already taxed where they are
earned. Most nations recognize that that would make investing locally costly
and undesirable. It would also put local companies at a competitive
disadvantage worldwide.

The politics of government greed in the USA has created a tax system where the
USA government charges the highest business tax rates in the world and
enforces punitive triple taxation of foreign profits. That's why USA companies
are keeping their money abroad instead of investing in jobs at home. (The USA
tax rate was second in the world until a recent Japanese reform, but Japan
never triple taxed profits abroad, so the Japanese rate was always effectively
lower.)

Corporate taxation is one of the few tax issues where Congressional
Republicans are often more sensible than Democrats, from a purely technical
tax policy perspective. Obama is willing to work with them, too, but nothing
seems to get done. It's one small part of the ongoing failure of Washington.

~~~
freehunter
And god forbid you're a US citizen living and working overseas. You still have
to fill out US tax forms for both state and federal tax. The federal
government won't charge taxes on anything under ~$90,000, but the states sure
will expect you to pay your share of their taxes, even though none of that
money was earned or spent in the US.

~~~
mahyarm
Wouldn't you not be resident in any state in that case then? Or could pretend
to just be in a non income tax state?

~~~
freehunter
I hear a lot of ex-pats who move to a non-income-tax state (like Texas) just
before they move overseas. If your US residence is still in a state with
income tax, even though you don't live there you still get taxed on your
overseas income because as a US citizen you still have residence in your state
even if you don't live there. It doesn't matter if you're physically there or
not.

The only other alternative is to renounce your US citizenship if you never
plan on coming back.

------
undoware
Here's my take. Nokia's downfall has literally been the biggest business
failure in the history of the planet - see communities-dominate.blogs.com for
backstory. (As I mentioned in a previous post; I'm largely summarizing things
Tomi proves with hard data.)

My interpretation of this is that the increasingly untenable position of
Stephen Elop began to incriminate the whole board, as any toppling of Elop
would invite all sorts of questions as to why he wasn't booted yonks ago. The
only way that Microsoft had of avoiding another black eye for Windows was to
buy Nokia to appease investors (seriously, how many black eyes can one
platform get? Is it a potato?)

Consider: Had the headline read, "Microsoft deal destroys World's Leading
Manufacturer of Mobile" (which incidentally is the actual, ink-on-paper market
position held by Nokia circa Elop's hire, shows Tomi) and it could have
destabilized the larger Windows ecosystem too.

If this claim seems histrionic, recall that the ENTIRE PC INDUSTRY is like a
tenth the size of mobile. Yes, I love my PC too, but most consumers seem much
happier with other devices for a wide range of use cases. Therefore, getting
Windows on those devices mattered. Windows Phone mattered. Windows RT
mattered. Intel is on its back leg, and ARM is about to make its final assault
on the server closet, where Windows Server is melting away faster than ice on
a VAX.

And yet I don't think people realize exactly how vulnerable Microsoft is. The
one good thing Ballmer did is notice. Way too late, though. It seems strange
to me that there are others who are even less clueful than Ballmer. If your
business depends in ANY WAY on Microsoft -- and it probably does -- plan
accordingly.

~~~
throwawaykf02
I know a couple of savvy guys working for Intel's competitors moaning about
how Intel is going to demolish them. Haswell and its descendants, it seems,
are the real deal, and in the long term, they hold out little hope for ARM in
the mobile space, let alone the server space.

I dunno about Microsoft, but I wouldn't be betting against Intel. (Just to be
clear, I have no stock in or position on any of the companies mentioned on
this entire thread.)

~~~
gnaffle
In the server space I agree. However, in the mobile space, ARM has a huge
advantage of licensing their cores to dozens of SoC manufacturers that provide
very appealing, integrated, low cost chips for mobile vendors to build
products on. It's like the Android of the mobile processor market.

If Intel ever start leasing out their manufacturing process to SoC vendors to
allow them to build whatever chips they want, then I'll be more optimistic
about Intel on mobile.

------
blinkingled
So Elop was in fact a Trojan Horse?

Wonder what this does to the already strained MSFT vendor relationships. You
could now almost guarantee vendors will start to completely dump Windows on
ARM and possibly even look for alternatives to Windows x86.

~~~
Moto7451
I disagree. I doubt purchasing Nokia's phone business would make PC vendors
any more worried than Surface/Surface Pro did. Windows is still king of the
desktop and unless Android becomes a desktop OS or Apple starts licensing OS X
there aren't any real alternatives with consumer brand recognition. If Ubuntu
were the answer then System 76 would be more than a boutique PC maker. If MS
starts making desktops, laptops, and servers... Then yeah it'll be a hectic
day for the people responsible for Windows OEM relationships.

The worry here for MS, as I see it, is really that they loose HTC and Samsung
and any other potential Windows Phone partner. I'm guessing they're prepared
to deal with the consequences.

~~~
kbaker
Idk, sounds like the year of Linux on the desktop is closer than it has ever
been. :)

But you should really look at Chromebooks/ChromeOS for one glimpse of what a
consumer-friendly, non-MS system would really look like. Right now it is the
#1 selling laptop on Amazon, and reviews are pretty positive.

If I was a shareholder in MSFT, I would seriously be worried for the future of
the whole Windows platform, mobile and desktop.

~~~
300bps
I started using Slackware Linux in 1997. If I had a nickel for everytime
someone declared the Linux desktop is imminent since then I'd have more money
than Bill Gates.

~~~
venomsnake
Next year is always the year of the Linux desktop.

But I begin seeing worries in people where MS is pushing the OS (mostly
privacy concerns) and is seems running windows in a hypervisor with VGA card
passed trough is becoming more and more popular.

~~~
mynameisvlad
> and is seems running windows in a hypervisor with VGA card passed trough is
> becoming more and more popular.

I know absolutely nobody who does this.

~~~
BinaryBrainz
I'm guessing that he's being a bit sarcastic since this would be an extremely
hodgepodged setup, but I have thought about doing something like this for a
home server/personal computer setup.

My thoughts where to have something like a rackmounted server machine in my
basement with multiple storage drives, oodles of RAM, CPU, and a video card
with it all running under an ESX (or whatever) install. Over the hypervisor I
could then have running a headless NAS OS (e.g. UnRAID or FreeNAS) for my
backups/media/etc and then a full-blown gaming PC running Windows with the GPU
being virtually attached to it. Then (oh there's more) I could run all of my
keyboard, video, mouse, and USB cables for the virtual gaming PC up through my
house to where my desk is located. I figure that with this setup I could
consolidate a several physical computers (gaming pc, NAS, etc) into one
workhorse computer which would save space and possibly some electricity.

~~~
venomsnake
Sarcastic - no - for a few tech savvy friends of mine the only thing that
really keeps them on non virtualized windows is gaming. So any solution that
offers them that - from high performance vm driver to vga passtrough is ok.

The desire to sandbox windows is real.

------
DominikR
To me, this is borderline criminal behaviour and shows once more that
Microsoft is incapable of playing fair.

Installing a trojan horse as Nokias CEO, who then proceeds to destroy any
value left in that company so that Microsoft can pick it up for a cheap price.

I'd be amazed if Elop is promoted to MS's CEO position for such deceitful
behaviour

~~~
buster
I think the exact same thing...

    
    
      - get ex MS employee to be Nokia CEO
      - fire lots of Nokia employees
      - run the company down
      - buy Nokia, hire ex MS employee to run that part
    

It's a shame, i never had a Nokia, but the featurephones atleast have been
decent hardware and quality. They haven't been marketleader for nothing..

Oh, and by the way, the next step will be:

    
    
      - buy all Nokia patents (if they haven't as well)
      - sue rest of the market
    

Nokia must be sitting on a huge pile of relevant mobile and networking patents
(although the networking stuff may stay with NSN).

~~~
markdown
This deal includes a purchase of Nokia's handset division, and a licensing of
a lot of their patents.

------
nl
~$7 Billion for the device & services business and Nokia's patents. Seems like
a good price now, but one you wouldn't have ever predicted before 2007 & the
launch of the iPhone.

In 2003 Nokia was worth $245 billion[1]

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/22/the-sad-tale-of-nokias-
sink...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/22/the-sad-tale-of-nokias-sinking-
market-cap-where-i-come-over-all-nostalgic/)

~~~
psbp
There's no doubt that Nokia has been buoyed by Microsoft leading up to this
acquisition. The lack of android devices would have been completely illogical
if this wasn't the long game.

~~~
bthomas
I think "end game" is more appropriate than "long game"

------
joezydeco
Well, at least Qt got warp-core ejected before all of this. God only knows
what would have happened in this transaction.

~~~
aroman
This. Even though I personally throw in with the GTK+ crowd as both a user and
developer, the competition between the two camps is definitely good for
innovation and makes for strong, compelling alternatives on the Linux desktop.

~~~
carmackty
"This." This what? What does that mean?

~~~
bdz
You must be new to the internetz

[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=this](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=this)

~~~
joezydeco
Or, like me, you're an internet old timer and just don't understand why people
can't just take the time and type "I totally agree".

------
pinaceae
MS paid less for Nokia handset business than for Skype.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Goodbye to the Nokia brand, soon only to be mentioned in rose-tinted
lookbacks. Mobile phones, built like a brick, running for days.

~~~
dagw
_Mobile phones, built like a brick, running for days_

The sad thing is that someone at Nokia seems to have just remembered those
days and they've just announced the Nokia 515. A solidly designed aluminium
and gorilla glass 'dumb phone' with a 30+ day standby time.

~~~
sjf
Eh, they've been selling brick phones to literally billions of people in the
developing world for years.

~~~
dagw
But they've been all cheap, ugly and badly built plastic things (I've owned a
couple). The 515 is an attempt to see if people are still willing to pay
slightly more for a simpler phone if it is good looking and well built.

------
elorant
So Microsoft just handed the entire Asian manufacturers’ bunch to the Android
ecosystem. Not that they’re not already there but it would be hard for any
manufacturer now to invest on Windows when they would think that MS is already
giving the edge to Nokia.

Also this comes like an acceptance from MS that they can’t penetrate the
smartphone market. So they prefer to invest heavily on devices they own. Which
is a first in their 30+ years of building software. Could this mean a similar
approach in tablets?

The price though is a bargain. It’s significant less than what Google paid to
buy Motorola and Nokia is in a pretty much better state than Motorola in many
aspects.

~~~
rst
To be fair, Google also owns a phone manufacturer (Motorola), also bought on
the cheap after a few years of flagging sales. They've managed to keep
relationships with other phone manufacturers going despite this, so far, but
it is a similar problem.

It's conceivable that some of the asian manufacturers might want a foot in
each camp (so long as each looked viable at all) just for leverage to use
against the other.

~~~
engrenage
The other manufacturers don't have any alternative but to stay with Google
despite Motorola and the tightening noose of Play Services.

~~~
voltagex_
Play Services is an absolute win for consumers. How is it a noose for
manufacturers?

~~~
engrenage
It progressively reduces their control over the products they make and hands
that ever more over to Google.

~~~
voltagex_
Where control means staying with Android 2.3.x far past the useful life of the
product, I'm inclined to side with Google.

------
Nux
What a tragic end to the sad story of Nokia.

It was a long time coming now, but I'm still gobsmacked.

Looking back it's as if Elop and whoever his puppeteer is did all they could
to undermine this company.

Sold to Microsoft for bits. Even Motorola sold for twice as much.

Nokia would have made money from Android. The market is massive and still
growing.

There is no bright future with Microsoft. People don't buy or recommend
Windows phone, not at a rate that matters they don't.

What a sad day. Farewell, Nokia.

------
sker
That kills my hopes for a Nokia Android phone.

Also, Elop seems like the least interesting character to succeed Ballmer. What
does he bring to the table? What has he done? Guy looks like a careerist.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop#Career](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop#Career)

~~~
X4
Oouh.. that reads like he managed to get every company he worked for to fade
away, go bancrupt or loose competitive strength in a very short time. This. Or
he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, very often.

    
    
        * DEAD: Lotus Development Corporation
        * DEAD: Boston Chicken
        * SOLD: Macromedia's
        * ALIVE: Juniper Networks
        * DECLINING: Microsoft Dynamics
    

I don't know this guy, but if that's the best they can get..

~~~
chollida1
> DECLINING: Microsoft Dynamics

Ummm, Microsoft dynamics has grown revenue every year for the past 4 years.
But hey don't let the facts get int eh way of your rage:)

[http://www.microsoft.com/Investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earn...](http://www.microsoft.com/Investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/SegmentResults/MicrosoftBusinessDivision/FY12/Q3/performance.aspx)

------
alex_c
Well, this makes all the speculation about Elop succeeding Ballmer that much
more interesting.

~~~
nestlequ1k
Yeah, it would be interesting to see if any MSFT shareholders are that dumb.
Elop's idiocy destroyed Nokia, now let's sic him on Microsoft too.

~~~
macspoofing
Nokia, like RIM, Microsoft, and Palm, was caught with their pants down, TWICE.
First with Apple's iPhone, then with Google's Android. Basically two tech
companies with no presence in mobility, took the market away from the
incumbents. In hindsight, when Elop took the CEO job, it was too late to fight
the iOS and Android behemoths.

What could have Elop done? Gone down the Blackberry route and try to have a
competing platform? Or maybe try to fight Samsung by releasing an Android
phone - with no guarantees that Nokia would fare better than others who tried
(looking at you HTC, Sony, LG, etc.)

~~~
throwaway1979
You make an interesting point. When I think back to the 2007, there was a huge
buzz around what the iPhone would turn out to be. At that time, Nokia had some
interesting R&D experiments such as the Nokia 770 tablet (followed by the n800
tablet). I worked with those devices from 06 and saw the UI improve at a
steady but slow rate. The toolchain was very promising since it was just
Linux+ARM. The UI chrome was called Maemo.

When Android first came out, I remember thinking how inferior it was compared
to the Linux OS on the Nokia tablets. Nokia had the Symbian platform at that
time... how can one fault them for not promoting the Linux based system then?

------
altano
The acquisition does _NOT_ include:

    
    
      - HERE Maps
      - Nokia NSN (Nokia Siemens Networks, its "network infrastructure")
      - Advanced Technologies (I couldn't find any info on what this means, given the name)

------
jcrei
The old fat couple in the room had a dance and microsoft just ran out of
things to say, so in order to avoid an awkward moment (high end sales are
abysmal) he proposed. nokia looked around, didn't want to die alone, and like
any scared middle aged woman, said yes.

------
tlb
The combined company makes a lot of sense and will be well-positioned to
compete in mobile, blah blah.

I'm sad, because Nokia stood for something: something I generally liked even
though I didn't own one. As did Microsoft: something I disliked mildly, but
that needed to exist.

Now those two brands can't stand for two separate things any more. The
combined company will stand for maximizing shareholder value through
leveraging synergies, or something.

Meanwhile, the iPhone has lost most of its personality, and Ubuntu phone isn't
shipping (and it'll be a watery product anyway).

Can someone please start a smartphone company to make a phone I care about?

~~~
asdfs
Jolla might interest you, though I have no idea about their current state.

------
sirkneeland
As a Nokia employee, I can't yet comment on whether this is ultimately good or
bad for us and what our dreams were.

I can say that it is a very emotional time for us Nokia employees, and I can
only imagine it is even more so for those of us who are also Finns.

------
emilyst
Do we imagine Elop tanked Nokia on purpose to cheapen the cost of this
acquisition (and shutter the patents under one roof)?

------
arkj
Ballmer trumps his critics. Well done - Sir.

There is a lot of potential to eat from both iPhone and Android cakes. Android
needs a beefy h/w, c'mon guys let's admit it. Windows is way faster even on
the low-end lumias. Also don't forget MS Office - the sleeping giant on
windows phones.

History likes to repeat itself. First Jobs wouldn't licence MacOS, and Billy
rode the wave he created. Then google got the second wave. Why? The same
reason, he wouldn't license iOS.

From a user perspective iOS is the best, but the new Lumias makes me think of
Apollo as no less great. No matter what google does, lumia will eat big from
Android's share. But I waiting to see how big a bite it's gonna be on the
apple.

In the enterprise world Office on Phones is gonna pay a big role. This is
death toll for blackberry, sorry to say that.

C'mon Cook, partner on. Let others make "cheap" apples. License iOS before
it's too late.

------
throwaway1979
<quote>Two turkeys don't make an eagle</quote>

~~~
nivla
But it does feed a family of ten... keeping useless jokes aside; Despite
loving my Lumia Windows phone, I am not too thrilled about this acquisition
either. I just hope Microsoft's internal politics doesn't ruin Nokia's future!

~~~
asenna
> I just hope Microsoft's internal politics doesn't ruin Nokia's future!

How bright do you think Nokia's future was prior to this?

~~~
nivla
Pretty bright I must say. Lumia became the fastest growing smartphones in the
Asian and South American markets. For a company that resurrected itself from
bankruptcy to this, does hold an impressive future if kept on its track.

------
undoware
Wow. Some call Tomi.

For copious, copious background on the MS/Nokia debacle, 'burning platform' to
present: communities-dominate.blogs.com

(Not affiliated, just an avid fan of this mobile industry analyst-become-
blogger who does his own stats. Some of the charts are chilling.)

~~~
goblin89
Tried to read a recent post there, but stopped after the statement “Nikon just
recently said it plans to launch its own smartphones”.

That looked like big news, so I looked it up. Turned out, Nikon's president
said something along the lines of “We want to create a product that will
change the concept of cameras. It could be a non-camera consumer product”
early July—that is the most reliable citation on the matter I could find.

So it was author's speculation, which he presented as fact on his blog. Maybe
there is some useful information there, but the hassle of verifying each
statement wasn't worth it for me.

~~~
iamshs
Tomi Ahonen is as anti-Nokia and MS as it gets, and hence I do not enjoy his
blog. As his narrative stretches the truth a lot, and prime example is his
Nokia analysis. Nokia was already in decline with Symbian, but go on his blog
and he presents very contorted factoids.

------
signa11
msft is buying "Nokia’s Devices & Services". nokia does other things as well,
for example, nokia-siemens-network (NSN) is a significant player in the EPC
(enhanced-packet-core) market as well...

~~~
adw
Yep, this looks more like Sony buying Ericsson out (and leaving Ericsson with
a very nice, profitable core business)

------
lsc
It is a sad day. I have been joking with friends that we should have a funeral
in sunnyvale. Probably, though, that would be in poor taste.

On the upside for nokia shareholders, well, when nokia switched to windows
phone, it was widely reported that "Microsoft bought Nokia for zero dollars"
\- now, at least, the Nokia shareholders are getting paid for it.

------
shmerl
It was expected all along since Elop ditched Meego which was key to Nokia's
success. It won't help Microsoft though, but expect a lot of damage from this.
Nokia already attacked VP8 codec with their patents. Now Microsoft will use
all Nokia's patents to bring patent trolling to new heights.

~~~
jmspring
Not sure how not ready, not shipping on devices, no app support makes it "key
to success". With that argument sticking to System 40 and System 60 would have
made more sense.

~~~
shmerl
Key to success since it allowed Nokia developing modern and versatile system.
Not sure what you meant by no support and not shipping. It was cancelled,
obviously. What kind of support do you expect from a cancelled system? Elop
cut off that road for Nokia, and their independence was doomed ever since. It
was probably the plan all along.

It's good that we have Jolla folks now, who continue Meego heritage. But now
they will be increasingly threatened by Microsoft trolling.

~~~
jmspring
Meego wasn't ready to ship, Nokia needed a different OS and Microsoft needed
devices. Not ideal for either case, but I don't think a Nokia based on Meego
with out the infusion of cash that came in from MSFT would have gone anywhere.

Everything one hears about Windows Phone is the "lack of apps". I suspect a
system based on Meego would have been a bigger challenge for Nokia than the
cash and backing that came from MSFT.

~~~
shmerl
_> Meego wasn't ready to ship, Nokia needed a different OS_

Nokia had a transition from Maemo to Meego in Harmattan. Harmattan was not
only ready to ship, it was shipped! While it was used, Meego could get ready
to ship. But Nokia de-facto cancelled it as soon as it came out, since Elop
was already in control. Nokia did not need a different OS. MS needed Nokia to
say they "need" a different OS. Obviously MS owned one. But Nokia wasn't
Microsoft back then. It is now, and MS probably planned that all along.

------
feniv
Microsoft is becoming more and more of an integrated software and hardware
company than a purely software one. Maybe it's time to change the name to
something without the "soft".

~~~
macspoofing
They've been trying to ape Apple in consumer electronics for the last ten
years. For some reason, they figure since Apple was making a butt-load
manufacturing and selling their own Phones and Tablets, they should do that
too. Meanwhile, Google follows the Microsoft OEM strategy and Android takes
80% of the market.

~~~
CmonDev
Yet Microsoft makes money on Android and Google doesn't make money on WP :).

~~~
dragonwriter
> Yet Microsoft makes money on Android and Google doesn't make money on WP

As long as people buying WP devices are using Google search, or visiting
websites that use Google's ad network, Google is making money off of WP, even
if they aren't holding WP manufacturers to ransom over dubious patents.

------
speeder
That was more or less expected...

But I think it is really sad too. I really enjoyed the pre-Microsoft Nokia, I
had account in their dev forums, and loved their SDKs, community, Sybian,
whatnot.

To me, when they suddenly dropped Sybian while they were still ahead AND
expanding in some markets (like Brazil, Russia...) and switched to MS, it was
really sad, and I felt like they dropped the ball.

Their Lumia phones DO pull some interesting hardware sometimes, but it was
never the same.

Now with MS outright buying them, not only the ball is dropped, but kicked way
out of the stadium.

~~~
obiterdictum
> I really enjoyed the pre-Microsoft Nokia, I had account in their dev forums,
> and loved their SDKs, community, Sybian, whatnot.

Really?

I thought their SDK circa 2007 (especially the emulator) and API docs were
terrible, and Symbian C++ was a real pain to work with. Also, segregation
between regular developers and Nokia partners (who paid to have access to
extra private APIs) put unnecessary barriers to development.

I won't miss it.

------
SnowProblem
Seems like it could be a great move, but it raises some questions. Given
Microsoft's perspective, they know they need to increase Windows Phone share.
The iPhone is on its way to become a niche device, so I doubt they would look
to Apple and try to turn Microsoft+Nokia into the one-stop-shop for Windows
Phone devices like I've seen speculated in many places. That's too big of a
gamble. Instead, I think they'd model after Android, which now has 80% of the
market, and continue strong on the OEM route, with Nokia-based devices just
acting as a leader. The way I see it, this aligns much better with what's
worked historically for Microsoft and what shareholders expect, especially
given the Surface blunder. At least I hope so.

The problem is that Samsung, HTC and LG are all focused on Android, and
Microsoft needs to change that. Can the Nokia buy help with that? I wonder.
What would stop Microsoft from using Nokia's patents aggressively (rather than
defensively) to "motivate" the other phone manufacturers to produce, market
and license more Windows Phone devices, or face additional lawsuits against
their majority-Android lines? Nokia alone didn't have the incentive to push to
increase WP share outside their lines before, and Microsoft appears to already
have a strong patent portfolio for mobile (source:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_wars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_wars)).
If so, this deal could be especially sweet for Microsoft, and also could
benefit Nokia too, since it would retain premium WP status when a true third
ecosystem develops. Thoughts?

------
aaronbrethorst
To everyone speculating about what this means for the possibility of Elop
succeeding Ballmer: this means that Elop _is_ succeeding Ballmer. End of
story.

edit: I would love to know why this is getting downvoted.

edit2: fair enough.

Two key facts:

1\. Microsoft needs a new CEO.

They have a limited pool to choose from. The following are seemingly
reasonable candidates:

\- Mark Zuckerberg (never going to happen, he wouldn't agree to it)

\- Steve Sinofsky (that ship has sailed)

\- Tony Bates (seems like a reasonable choice; relative outsider, smart, has a
tech background)

\- Another member of Steve's SLT (some would be better than others. I think a
sizable portion of the company would revolt if KT was chosen).

\- Sheryl Sandberg (doubt it, since I think she's gunning for the US Senate)

\- Carly Fiorina (MS's board would never agree to it)

\- Stephen Elop (reasonably obvious choice: insider, devices experience, has
CEO experience, but there's that pesky Nokia thing)

2\. Microsoft has a new, relatively large, soon-to-be-on-the-board activist
share holder in ValueAct. ValueAct will have a significant amount of authority
over yea'ing or nay'ing acquisitions and over who the new CEO will be.

I can't imagine there's any way Elop would agree to working under someone else
again. He also seems like a not-unreasonable choice for CEO of Microsoft,
outside of the fact that he hasn't exactly made Nokia back into a rip-roaring
success, and doesn't represent much of a change from business as usual at
Microsoft.

~~~
nemothekid
Why would Zuckerberg or Sandberg be good candidates from Microsoft CEO? Don't
get me wrong, I'm not trying to slight Facebook, but in my mind Facebook and
Microsoft operate on two completely different wavelengths. I'm confident they
wouldn't perform poorly, but I find it hard to believe they could provide the
type of leadership and vision Microsoft needs right now. I'm just interested
in hearing your thinking.

Also not really thrilled about Carly Fiorina, didn't she gut HP R&D division?
I'm not sure your list is actually serious. Either way I'm doubtful Elop will
become CEO given that he wasn't really able to make anything good come from
Nokia.

~~~
Swannie
Yeah, I strongly agree. I never understood why people think Sandberg or
Zuckerberg would every be considered by the board. Facebook is such a
_totally_ different business to one building software and hardware for
operating systems, office tools, web and email platforms, cloud services,
systems management, identity management, mobile platforms, gaming platform
development, unified communications, collaboration software, CRM, etc. etc.
etc. (the list goes on and on).

A much better fit would be someone from Oracle or IBM. Or even someone from a
large enterprise systems company with deep software background (e.g. someone
from SAP, Cisco, CA).

~~~
aaronbrethorst
That assumes you want continuity with Ballmer.

------
hiyou102
Nokia Solutions and Networks still makes plenty for money so they aren't dead
quite yet. I think this makes sense for Microsoft seeing as how the redesign
of Windows phone hasn't made back the money they put into it. It's becoming
unprofitable for windows phones to be made so they are ensuring they have
hardware.

------
rburhum
Among many other things, with this, MS can now compete with Google Maps.
Although they already had a partnership with Nokia, having them with a tighter
team integration is a different story. I am sure both MS and Google will do
drastic innovations with this renewed competition.

------
forgottenpaswrd
I hate to say that, but I told you so! :-D

More than two or more years ago, I wrote in different places, and probably in
HN that when Microsoft partners he is always the winner, and the other is the
looser, and that Microsoft was going to buy Nokia at a discount in the future.

History repeats itself.

------
general_failure
So, it's lesser than the price for Skype? Wow. This makes no sense to me
though. I mean Nokia has a lot more value than Skype!

~~~
RachelF
Yes, hard to believe they paid more for Skype!

------
ghshephard
Clearly Elop agreeing on the acquisition by Microsoft was contingent on
Ballmer resigning from Microsoft, Setting Elop up as the next CEO of
Microsoft. So, not only was Ballmer fired, his replacement has likely already
been chosen.

------
iamshs
More here: [http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2013/Sep13/09-02An...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2013/Sep13/09-02AnnouncementPR.aspx)

------
JoachimS
This is a great move - for Nokia. Now Nokia has a huge pile of money to take
on Huawei, Ericsson and Cisco etc in the mobile network field. Remember, Nokia
bought out Siemens from NSN as recent as July this year:

[http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-30/nokia-said-to-
ag...](http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-30/nokia-said-to-agree-to-buy-
siemens-stake-in-nsn-networks-venture)

With the money from the MS deal, the headache of a failing mobile phone
business while retaining the patents and maps I think Nokia will be in a much
better position witch a clearer focus.

------
ville
Nowadays I measure acquisitions in Instagrams. At $7.2B Nokia cost Microsoft
~7 Instagrams. That sounds crazy when you think that Instagram had 13
employees, compared to 30000 employees moving to Microsoft from Nokia.

------
adamwintle
Nokia sold to Microsoft for ~$1.5 billion less than what Skype was sold for

~~~
netforay
It is $7.17 [http://allthingsd.com/20130902/microsoft-to-buy-nokias-
devic...](http://allthingsd.com/20130902/microsoft-to-buy-nokias-device-
business-for-7-17-billion-euros/)

But still less than $8.5 paid for Skype. (Which I think is total waste of
money)

~~~
the_economist
Skype accounted for an ungodly 167 billion international call minutes in 2012.
It is perhaps not fair to belittle them.

~~~
MichaelGG
No, but it still makes me sick, because Microsoft had Skype capabilities a
decade before Skype. NetMeeting, then MSN Messenger supported audio/video.
Messenger even had telephone integration to call out, but poorly done (some
shitty partnership that made you buy an account with MCI). They had SMS
integration to a better extend that Skype does today.

But MS's MSN/Live division was so terribly run, they missed out on turning MSN
into a social network (FFS, they had everyone with their friend relationships
already via Messenger!), and the Messenger software didn't promote audio/voice
very well, nor did the session establishment stuff work well. They sat around
for over a decade and let other people overtake them for no reason other than
having terrible management. (Wave 11(?) had an installer that literally took
over 30 minutes, as management wanted to search your entire disk for stuff.)

------
JoachimS
The deal is also very interesting as it clearly points to what the board of MS
sees as the future - to truly become a device vendor. They have had success
with Xbox, but failed with Zune and first generation Surface.

Can they really transform MS into a prosperous device company while not
alienating their partners and affect their core enterprise SW business? I have
my doubts and that they don't acquire the patents, just license them makes
their position imho much weaker.

Also, the new Nokia feature phone, will it even appear on the market now
before being killed?

------
zmmmmm
Theory: Nokia went to Microsoft and said "we're going Android". This was the
(intended) result?

------
wmt
Nokia was not acquired by MS, Nokia sold them their burning platform, their
phone department.

------
aaronsnoswell
Please correct the title on this post - Microsoft is only acquiring the
devices and services branch of Nokia - they do have other departments (e.g.
mapping).

------
test001only
What would this mean for all the Nokia feature phones ? The latest Asha series
was very good and selling pretty well atleast in India. How would this figure
in MS strategy? Are they going to ditch it? That would be sad, because Nokia
still makes phones that can withstand rough use.

On the other side would Nokia start manufacturing Laptop in future. I would
really like Nokia design team to come up with a good Windows laptop!

~~~
abrowne
I'm wondering the same. My main phone now is an Asha 501 — great phone for a
light user who wants a small, light device with a long battery life.

------
vineet
What else is part of Nokia other than their 'Nokia Devices & Services'?

~~~
bsimpson
\- here.com maps

\- mobile broadband

\- r&d

citation: [http://press.nokia.com/2013/09/03/nokia-to-sell-devices-
serv...](http://press.nokia.com/2013/09/03/nokia-to-sell-devices-services-
business-to-microsoft-in-eur-5-44-billion-all-cash-transaction/)

~~~
wmt
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is also not small

~~~
Swannie
No longer Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia recently bought out their share from
Siemens, and now called "Nokia Solutions and Networks". It's been a solid
revenue generator for them.

Just like Motorola which has a lot of cell tower/radio networking etc. that is
didn't sell to Google, Nokia is a huge player in base stations/NodeB's, etc.
that it's not selling.

------
plinkplonk
So now the Nokia employees who aren't let go can now experience the pleasures
of Microsoft Stack Ranking.

------
IanChiles
3 walled gardens is a very, very bad thing. Couple this with what Google's
doing with the new Play Services and Motorola and with what Apple's been doing
the entire time, and we could be in for a world of hurt when there are no
"open" platforms (as in, for OEMs to build for).

~~~
Apocryphon
2013 is the debut year of Firefox OS, Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, and Samsung's
supposed flagship Tizen phone. Now, the question is if carriers, consumers and
OEMs will respond to them with any enthusiasm, or treat them like third
parties in American politics.

~~~
Karunamon
That would depend entirely on how they present themselves. If those players
decide to come off like Linux on the desktop does (where "open"-ness is the
main selling point, something utterly irrelevant to people who aren't a
particular breed of techie), nobody will care.

Nobody ever successfully sold a platform based on its political leanings.

------
i386
Very interesting, since Stephen Elop was tipped to replace Ballmer after his
departure.

I think the real coup is the access to the dumb phone market in places like
Africa and India where Nokia is strong today but where their growing middle
class will want to move to smart phones over the next 10 years.

------
moron4hire
Actually, I'd be really interested to see if Microkia could pull it off, could
make an awesome phone that seriously challenged the iOS/Android hegemony. I
think they have the resources to be able to do it in a way that Mozilla or
Ubuntu or any other strictly software/no experience in hardware company could
do. And if Microsoft can reinvent itself and snatch victory out of this, then
that means the market is _actually_ wide open. Ultimately, I'd like to see a
true, open source, Linux phone, and Microsoft quite ironically could do a lot
to prove that one could be successful.

In other words, Microsoft gets to take chances that anyone else gets to learn
from. More competition is a good thing.

------
AliaksandrH
I feel like there are fundamental problems with MSFT (or INTC)succeeding in
the mobile world

After the platform wars of 90s, the industry has scars (70% of economics went
to two vendors - MSFT and INTC - Wintel)and would not want any potential
repeat of the history

In many ways, ARM Holdings is anti-Intel. Same way, one can claim that Android
is anti-Windows model (in many respects)

I am really curious what will happen here - and who are people in U.S. who
still don't own a smartphone? (still 39% of the population -
[http://mashable.com/2013/06/06/smartphones-61-percent/](http://mashable.com/2013/06/06/smartphones-61-percent/))

------
marcamillion
Why would MSFT highlight the fact that the cash is coming from overseas in the
PR? Is there a tax benefit to doing something like that?

Specifically:

 _Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will pay EUR 3.79 billion to
purchase substantially all of Nokia’s Devices & Services business, and EUR
1.65 billion to license Nokia’s patents, for a total transaction price of EUR
5.44 billion in cash. Microsoft will draw upon its overseas cash resources to
fund the transaction. _

[http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2013/Sep13/09-02An...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2013/Sep13/09-02AnnouncementPR.aspx)

~~~
sseveran
It doesn't have to pay US taxes on money overseas to fund the transaction.

~~~
marcamillion
That's interesting.

------
ali-
"From January 2008 to September 2010, Elop worked for Microsoft as the head of
the Business Division, responsible for the Microsoft Office and Microsoft
Dynamics line of products, and as a member of the company's senior leadership
team. It was during this time that Microsoft's Business Division released
Office 2010.[15]"

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop)

Don't believe he'll be the next CEO but certainly a possibility given his
previous engagement with MSFT...

------
rurounijones
Elop: Mission accomplished

------
mcintyre1994
It'll be interesting to see what happens with Windows Phone from here. As far
as I know, nobody except Nokia was doing 'better' with WP than Android, and
didn't seem to be putting much effort into it really. I imagine they might be
further deterred by Microsoft buying the dominant manufacturer too. This seems
to put all the momentum of WP with Microsoft, and it seems like the only real
place to go from here is competing with the iPhone/iOS head on.

------
wesleyd
Gee, we didn't see that coming.

------
rbanffy
... and this is the part I say "I told you so".

Elop never really left Microsoft. All he did at Nokia's helm was to trim down
the company to facilitate this acquisition.

------
milesf
So a has-been has been acquired by another has-been. Together they will unseat
the Apple/Google juggernaut by beating IOS/Android.

No, I don't believe it either.

------
MichaelMoser123
In Tel Aviv we have the Nokia stadium (that's because Nokia sponsored the
reconstruction of the thing); will we now have a Microsoft stadium instead ?

------
hauget
Always loved #Nokia's design but hated their sw. One of my favorite designed
phones EVER will always be the E71
[http://bit.ly/14nbnC7](http://bit.ly/14nbnC7) On that note, Microsoft should
buy Blackberry too. Nokia design & hardware +WinPhone8 software +Blackberry's
customers might be a winning combination.

------
ulfw
7.2 Billion USD for Nokia sounds like a much better deal to me than 12.5 B for
Motorola. Kudos to MSFT on finally making that move!

------
dodyg
iPhone destroyed Microsoft, BlackBerry and Nokia high end smartphone products.
Android crushed the rest. End of story.

------
capkutay
Wow. So he kept nokia stagnant while samsung and apple exploded in the
smartphone market and now he gets to be CEO of another company thats been
stagnant for years(he was already passed up for being CEO at MSFT before he
left to nokia). I guess microsoft's strategy is to keep chasing after the
devices market.

~~~
pedalpete
I'm not sure what world your on. Elop would not have been in the running as
CEO of Microsoft. I don't believe he would have had enough experience at that
time. Was there anybody other than Ballmer and ray Ozzie epwho would have been
considered.

He's actually brought Nokia back from the brink and kept a sinking ship
somewhat afloat, in my opinion. At the same time, I don't think he is enough
of a visionary to lead Microsoft.

~~~
capkutay
Ok well...MSFT could either choose to focus on enterprise or pick up Nokia and
their CEO as a pat on the back for only losing 25% of its value every year.
This plan seems more like a hail mary to catch up to apple. It could pay off
but its certainly the riskiest and least logical route. I think there's
significant room for innovation and profit in enterprise tech right now and
much more room for failure in mobile.

~~~
pedalpete
Giving up in the mobile space isn't an option. In these situations, Microsoft
had to take action. If they just give the mobile sector to apple and google,
they also potentially weaken the windows ecosystem itself.

Microsoft may be slow, but they have enough momentum to make a small dent in
the market and grow from there.

Taking risks is a necessity.

------
JoachimS
Here is the Microsoft Strategic Rationale presetation:
[http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.c...](http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-
us%2Fnews%2Fdownload%2Fpress%2F2013%2FStrategicRationale.pdf&h=gAQFbuiSc)

------
crucialfelix
This also probably means that Nokias very good map technology will now merge
into or replace Bing's.

------
ojbyrne
My initial thought was "didn't that already happen?" It's an easy mistake to
make.

------
Moto7451
Wow, interesting timing. I wonder if Elop will end up in the running for CEO
of MS as part of this.

------
itsbits
PLease microsoft..just make Visual Studio free and you will lead mobile market
in no time..

~~~
maybe_someday
They already have a free version for creating WP apps.

------
ommunist
The fall of giant. A domino effect may result in Samsung buying Microsoft in
3-5 years.

------
patrikr
The title is wrong. Nokia is not being acquired, it's selling the phone
business.

------
vmarsy
All the other comments are too focused on the front-end Nokia Lumia vs iPhone
vs Android.

Microsoft buying Nokia is kind of the same as Google buying Motorola for 12
billion $ :

Nokia has 10k patents in the mobile phone world.

So a 10-year license to its patents has its importance

~~~
sharpneli
That pretty much means that the biggest owner of patents for mobiles does not
manufacture them anymore. Thus the mutually assured destruction does not
hinder them anymore.

I'm not surprised if we'll see a bunch of patent lawsuits against everyone
else except Microsoft within an year.

------
kailuowang
Ballmer confirms what we all knew: Elop candidate for Microsoft CEO job
[http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/03/microlop/](http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/03/microlop/)

------
stefek99
If you wonder how the market reacted:
[http://nokiastock.tumblr.com/post/60266789816/here-the-
answe...](http://nokiastock.tumblr.com/post/60266789816/here-the-answer-comes)

------
jaakl
This title is here more than 50% wrong. Microsoft bought Devices and Services
business, and large portion of patents. This is about 50% of Nokia revenues,
less than 50% of employees, and about 0% of the profits.

------
bender80
Anyone know price per share? I was not able to find it in the press release.

~~~
bender80
Nevermind. Nokia itself was not purchased by microsoft. Only part of the
company (Devices & Services buinesss) was purchased.

------
tlogan
It seems like this will be very interesting fight between Apple, Microsoft,
Google, and Samsung in next few years. I assume the first three will do
relatively well - the only looser here will be Samsung.

~~~
sanxiyn
Why do you assume so?

------
X-Istence
What does this mean for Qt?

~~~
taspeotis
What do you expect it to mean?

 _[In March 2011] Nokia announced the sale of Qt 's commercial licensing and
professional services to Digia_ [1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_(framework)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_\(framework\))

~~~
X-Istence
Nokia is still one of the primary developers behind Qt, or at least they
were... has that changed?

~~~
karinapa
It has changed. A Finnish company called Digia owns Qt completely and is the
main developer. That's why Qt is now available even for Android and iPhone.
The Nokia-MS deal does not affect Qt.

------
devnetfx
Considering the amount paid for Motorola by Google, isn't it cheap?

~~~
arron61
Google bought Motorola for 12.5 billion and then sold off it's Home division
for 2.3 billion. At the time of the purchase, Motorola had 2 billion in cash
so in the end, Google probably paid 8 billion ish for Motorola. Considering
that in those 1.5 years, Moto and Nokia's values have been decreasing as well,
I think they are pretty close in value.

------
doe88
Nokia 7.2bn$

Skype 8.5bn$

I think, it is reasonnable to say it seems to be a better move this time.

------
AndrewDucker
What does this mean for Nokia's remaining feature-phone business?

I was under the impression that there was still a global market for people
wanting cheap, low-function, phones.

~~~
mrweasel
I was thinking the same thing. What is Microsoft going to do with that part of
the business, that's the part that's doing well.

Nokias feature phones are still huge in Africa and large parts of Asia. If
Microsoft is just going to ignore that part of the business, then they are
opening the marked for the competitors. If they just bought Nokia for their
smartphone, then they are making a giant mistake.

~~~
mongol
I think they will operate it as long as it runs a decent profit.

------
caberus
this makes Elop the most dangerous trojan horse of all times

------
j45
Anyone else see this and think of their Nokian Tyres? Nokia has an interesting
history, including owning Nokian which makes some very good winter tires.

------
dmead
"hi everybody, i'm bill gates. buy this phone and 15 dollars will go to
support malaria research".... is what i want to see on tv.

------
thspimpolds
Well, RIM is now RIP. Microsoft was their last hope

------
meerita
If you think this gonna bring better phones, with better OSs, you're wrong.
Look back into the history of these companies.

------
dotcoma
For less money than they spent on Skype.

------
st2p
Misleading title - Microsoft acquired the handset division; Nokia lives on in
infrastructure and maps.

------
niuzeta
I wonder if it's the last present Ballmer left to whoever succeeds him, or the
last spat.

------
caberus
maybe it sounds irrelevant, but always i wonder that, why Nokia pays less
attention to Linux, a Finnish company and an OS born in Finland? Only a few
Nokia devices run some kind of Linux and i think they are not so bad (my
favorite is N9, btw).

------
RomP
Once more we marvel the prophecy of this designer:
[http://stocklogos.com/topic/past-and-future-famous-
logos](http://stocklogos.com/topic/past-and-future-famous-logos) First he
predicted next Microsoft logo, now Nokia. Bravo!

------
gpvos
> Nokia Windows Phones the fastest-growing smartphones in the world

Huh?

------
mathattack
Expensive signing bonus to pick up their new CEO?

------
snorkel
Why is this not reported in mainstream media yet?

~~~
schuke
Because most people in Europe and North America have to wake up first? ;)

~~~
Qantourisc
I concur, I'm just awake, good morning.

------
TerraHertz
Now we find out if Failure has a critical mass.

------
faddotio
CEO reverse acquisition? Elop 4 MS CEO 2014?

------
fmax30
This was pretty much almost expected. What microsoft did was made nokia very
much dependent upon microsoft. Then it buys it, a stroke of genius i tell you.

~~~
fmax30
Might I know the reason for the DownVote ? I just presented my observation ,
if you disagree then please by all means let us have a gentleman's discussion.

------
stugs
Cue Snake on Windows RT jokes

------
jotm
Well, it finally happened...

------
cevaris
damn. would have really like to see an Nokia based android phone.

------
leaffig
I called this on Friday after looking at the stock market. Too bad I didn't
bet too much money on it, but I still made a bunch :)

[http://stocktwits.com/bluercloud/message/15522482](http://stocktwits.com/bluercloud/message/15522482)

[http://stocktwits.com/bluercloud/message/15522546](http://stocktwits.com/bluercloud/message/15522546)

By the way, this looks like an acquihire for Elop being the next MSFT CEO.

~~~
RachelF
I wonder who knew?

~~~
dTal
I love this. Virtually irrefutable evidence of insider trading, and everyone
goes "meh".

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Happens all the time.

------
alxbrun
1 living dead + 1 living dead = ...

~~~
nivla
an unproductive comment on HN?

~~~
alxbrun
at least you're honest with yourself!

------
smegel
Hey guys, stop it, April 1st is like 8 months away!

------
karthikeyahegde
Ohh my GOD... now MS introduces the bugs, not only in OS, it will be in phone
HardWare also.

