“According to industry insider Eldar Murtazin, Microsoft has struck a deal to purchase Nokia’s mobile phone business for $19 billion,” Todd Haselton reports for BGR.
“It could make sense: Nokia’s CEO is former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop, and the two companies have already reached a deal to create new Windows Phone devices, a dozen of which are expected to launch next year,” Haselton writes.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Beleaguered Nokia’s stock continues plummet as analysts slash targets – June 1, 2011
Beleaguered Nokia cuts outlook, shares plummet – May 31, 2011
Beleaguered Nokia to shed 7,000 employees – April 27, 2011
Apple overtakes Nokia as world’s largest vendor of mobile handsets by revenue – April 21, 2011
Microsoft’s Windows Phone ’07 U.S. launch was a dud; Nokia worried? – April 12, 2011
Apple makes roadkill of deer-in-the-headlights CEOs – April 1, 2011
Microsoft to pay Nokia over $1 billion to use Windows Phone ’07 – March 7, 2011
Analysts not impressed with Nokia’s incoming CEO Elop – September 10, 2010
Makes perfect sense. They has an OS, now all they need are phones. The Skype dealeo was a total waste of money.
LOL
Makes perfect sense. They have an OS, now all they need are phones. The Skype dealeo was a total waste of money.
I liked the I Can Has Cheezburger version better. 🙂 More in line with Ballmer’s brain capacity.
Two losers don’t make a winner
Elop is the ultimate Microsoft trojan horse. Sent in there as a ‘friendly’ CEO only to pummel the stock so it could be bought cheap by MS.
Nice.
Good theory. Makes me wonder who wheeled Ballmer up to the gates of Microsoft….
Our Mr. Jobs did. He had connections with person who made dorm room assignments at Gates and Ballmer’s alma mater.
in other surprising news:
Water is wet.
Only Microsoft would pay $18 billion for something worth $11 billion. 🙂 All someone has to do is put a rumor that Apple or Google is looking at NOK and Balllmer will go straight to $30 billion, no questions asked….
http://www.asymco.com/2011/06/01/is-nokia-worth-less-than-skype/
Wow. Just wow. Fascinating watching the Titanic slowly slip beneath the waves.
Rearranging the deck chairs seems more legit when you spend billions on it.
…though I actually think MS is not going to sink. They have too much of a presence in enterprise and under the hood OS (thanks for making the self-check at the market a crash/reboot nightmare MS!).
Yes, MS will circle the drain for years, but one day we’ll all be surprised that it’s still here. Kind of like IBM, MS will have to accept the fact that it basically can’t do anything beyond Windows/enterprise software and Office, and retreat to that walled castle. Once Ballmer is gone, the shareholders will be happier because he won’t be wasting their dividends on stupid billion dollar projects and acquisitions that result in multi-billion dollar losses.
Everyone likes to compare Microsoft to the Titanic but I personally view it more like the S.S. Poseidon. After being capsized by the Apple tidal wave that they didn’t pick up on the scope until it was too late, they are still afloat… just upside down with everyone hanging on to chandeliers and Christmas trees for dear life…
LOL. Interesting analogy.
Oops! That’s dining hall tables and Christmas trees… I must be just as disoriented as Microsoft is…
Now the circle is complete!
Why doesn’t Microsoft face anti-trust investigations when time after time they buy competing companies for staggering amounts and run those companies into the ground?
Killing the competition is just plain wrong, no matter how you do it.
Who would raise anti-trust concerns with the government when MS kills a company?
Certainly not the competition in the market MS entered! 😉
I don’t see where is Nokia competing with Microsoft. In fact, nokia has just become their significant partner, buying their Windows Phone software for their mobile devices.
I can already see the deja vue of the Sidekick scenario. This is gonna be fun to watch! (pulling up a chair and getting some popcorn)
Why would there be anti-trust complaints? Microsoft does not build mobile phones, and it can be argued that Nokia doesn’t develop mobile operating systems.
Microsoft can’t be violating anti-trust laws when it doesn’t operate in a given area. Plus, have you seen it’s market share in mobile devices lately? Neither has anyone else!
Fools and their money are soon parted.
Familiar news when speaking about Microsoft.
Let’s do the math. $8.5 billion $19 billion = $27.5 billion. According to the supercomputer running inside Ballmer’s incredible Borg mind that still comes to less than $35 billion, the figure he would have paid to acquire Yahoo.
So in saving $35 billion Ballmer still comes out ahead even if he were to stand atop the Space Needle in Seattle and pissed away another $7.5 billion on top of what he’ll be spending to buy Nokia.
That’s the power of Excel spreadsheet math formula for you.
In THAT case, I’m willing to endure a truly golden shower 😉
Do the math? It’s obvious that Microsoft has NO coherent strategy. 🙂
Here’s the Ballmer math. “We already gave Nokia $1 billion. Another 19 makes it an even 20. I like 20, I like it a lot.”
Before Nokia’s recent quarterlies, the deal would have cost Microsoft much more, but with a man on the inside, the Finnish line is in sight, and they’re bringing up the rear.
Boo-yah! Monkey boy!
You said Finnish
I like their strategy… I like it alot
Me too…brilliant!
Nokia will be dead and buried within a year if this is true. Then Apple will be the survivor. Maybe Balmy is working for Apple after all! LOL!
Yessssss….
The master plan is coming together.
Now MS just needs to announce a management restructuring and just one more acquisition. Then Ballmer will have them running just great for the next 10 years.
May Ballmer stay forever.
Beautiful strategy… publicize a partnership with Nokia, then when Nokia’s stock goes into the toilet due to the ball and chain around their neck, buy them for cheap.
Yeah, I didn’t see this one coming.
Well, good on Nokia. They saw the future with MS OS, and wisely have decided to bail the sinking ship on the MS pool, while it still has values to sale. To think, Nokia was once tipped to be one of the legit contenders for a trillion dollar valuation.
Future historians may only smile at all who questioned whether iPhone launch in 2007 was actually a disruption and of what proportion/splash.
“Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” ~ Steve Jobs, introducing l’iPhone.
To Ballmer: Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it…you dumb bastard…Nokia slipping under the water with you at the helm will cement your cement head as the “clown for the ages” in business schools for eternity.
Do it. I love a PlaysForSure repeat, only this time with epic cash!
Time to buy even more puts on MSFT! I absolutely love Ballmer’s strategy. I even had to stop watching his initial response to the iPhone, I can’t stop laughing whenever I see it!
Let’s see, that’s $19B for Nokia and $8.5B for Skype. Hmmm, $27.5B. Not exactly small change. Sounds like Ballmer is cleaning out the bank. For what? So they compete directly with their Windows Phone 7 manufacturers like they did when they brought out the Zune (and we all know how successful THAT was).
I like his strategy (for Apple’s continued domination), I like it a lot!
All other major WinPhone makers are likely soon going to bail on those agreements and focus on Android. How can you possibly compete with your own hardware if the guy who makes software for you also makes hardware of his own? Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC… It is actually funny to watch them swing in the wind… A year ago, when Apple announced their patent law suit against HTC, most of these handset makers peed their pants a little and started hedging their bets by embracing a bit of WinPhone. Now that MS themselves will be competing against them (and we know how MS competes), it is practically certain that their next year lineup will swing forcefully towards Android. It will be even more fun to see what happens when Apple’s patent suit against HTC produces some results. Which way are they going to swing then?
Okay, our prayers were answered!
The MS Board wisely read MDN comments here and realized what a great leader Ballmer has become and threw their support behind his genius plans, allowing him the opportunity to make this next Big Deal.
I for one am glad they didn’t decide that the Skype debacle (uhmm, great buying opportunity) was actually a problem and waited to see what their great leader would dream up next to take the company into the 22nd century (and beyond!).
May he remain for as long as it takes, which is unfortunately a LOT closer now 😉
damn it, Damn It, DAMN IT! If they hadn’t sent ‘friendly emissary’ Elop, they would have had to pay $38 Billion. Oh well, guess they got lucky this time
A toast to Ballmer’s business acumen!
Buy RIM too while you’re at it! 😉
So $8 billion for skype, $19 billion for nokia, and probably 1.5 billion in r+d and marketing.
This is turning out to be the most expensive phone ever.