“If you were to look at how the smartphone market has led serious blows to Nokia, you might think the company is doomed to closure,” Tristan Louis writes for TNL.net. “But smart acquisitions and an extensive patent portfolio may make them extremely attractive for the company that served as the root of its problems: Apple.”
“Over the last few years, Nokia has made a number of bets on location and mapping, with the 2007 U$8 billion acquisition of Navteq,” Louis writes. “This acquisition made Nokia the largest provider of mapping services in the world. In fact, the company provides mapping services to Google, UPS, Fedex, and many of the largest players in the automotive industry.”
Louis writes, “Of course, an acquisition of Nokia would have quite an impact on Microsoft as it tries to make its way back into the mobile space. With Nokia as its most important partner, Microsoft’s hope to become a likely contender for consumers’ hearts might be dealt something pretty close to a deathblow.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Would be a nice move!
If for no other reason than to see the forlorn look of Nokia CEO (and ex-Microsoft Toady) Stephen Elop’s face!
it looks like apple fans are not happy with apple’s crap maps, that’s why you people want to have Nokia. 🙂
Nokia is here to stay. Look at Nokia’s Lumia 920. It is beautifully designed, and it has so many great features. 😉
Even if Microsoft and others were unable to stop Apple, I doubt that regulators would allow it. And, even if Apple somehow succeeded in acquiring Nokia, antitrust principles would come into play if it tried to cut off Microsoft W8 phones or Navteq mapping data to Google.
Big acquisitions are historically big losers. Apple has been very successful with targeted, smaller acquisitions such as PA Semi, etc. Big, splashy, and very expensive purchases are not consistent with Apple’s culture, even though the company can certainly afford to make big plays. Let Microsoft and Google waste tens of billions.
If Apple were looking for a big acquisition, then I would go for Nintendo. The companies Mario gaming franchise would be worth a fortune on iOS.
Im a big Apple nerd, but a actually want to see some decent Windows phones come to market in a meaningful way.
(Will not be holding breath for “decent” or “meaningful”)
Would be nice to have a 3rd player.
Don’t buy Nokia. Wait and buy up the scraps like Navteq and any desirable patents. Don’t use my money for the ill will of the finnish folk who will lose their ability to make a living when Nokia closes up.
Agree, no to Nokia but Navteq ok. But, what the fu**k…are you talking about “…for the ill will of the finnish folk….”? Are you just plain stupid or is it just lack of IQ? Which is your excuse?
Get up on the wrong side of the cave today? Wow!
I forgot to mention: Haista vittu kusipää!
+1 lol!
I’m with you.
He has no excuse.
That would be buying tons of unneeded bloat and irrelevant manufacturing infrastructure just to gain IP leverage.
Navteq’s IP is worth the bloat. See this article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/the-forgotten-mapmaker-nokia-has-better-maps-than-apple-and-maybe-even-google/263150/
Sometimes you do just that.
How about this… Apple goes in with Microsoft and buys all the map related properties, while Microsoft buys the rest?
Or, how about Apple buys the map related properties, giving Nokia cash to survive?
+1
It would make sense (with the limited data I have on the subject) for Apple to acquire Navteq, giving Nokia a 5 year free use license (they won’t be around that long anyway), with MSFT taking the rest. The only issue is how much Navteq would add to Apple’s mapping capability, and whether the regulator ices would allow it.
Not just the maps, Tristan Louis also specifically mentions the sweet LTE patent portfolio that Nokia owns… I’m sure Apple could find some use for it!
Apple might face some serious resistance from Microsoft and a variety of others if they attempted to purchase Nokia outright, but it might work out well for Apple, Nokia and Microsoft if Apple could buy 51-100% of Nokia’s mapping business with the provision that Nokia could continue to make full use of the technology and future developments at no cost to them for an agreed upon period of time, and for a very agreeable licensing fee after that. Furthermore, the licensing agreement could be extended at favorable rates to any other Windows Mobile handset manufacturer interested in making use of it. Doing so would eliminate the contention that Apple was buying a competitor to liquidate them and reduce competition. They would actually be strengthening Nokia and the Windows Mobile platform as a competitor to Google and Android.
baldwhite guy – Way too much Kumbaya and hand holding.
This is mobile warfare not a Pepsi commercial!
But many of the regulators are Pepsi drinkers.
I agree that it is mobile warfare, but the primary enemy is Android, not Windows Mobile. Strengthening a third platform in the market is much more of a threat to Android and Google than it is to Apple.
Apple doesn’t buy companies to shut them down and does not want to be seen as doing so. Doing it this way would give Nokia some life support without removing access to their mapping technology, making them much more willing to go along with it at a more reasonable price.
Can’t see this happening, Nokia needs the maps if its to survive in the post phone world it’s headed for as does Microsoft. Also to buy Nokia with everyone knowing it would effectively close down the company and export what few bits it needed would be like Nissan buying Detroit and closing down the factories and exporting what useful technology was retained. Apple would in one stroke take on the mantle of evil Empire not seen since Lex Luther mislaid his supply of Kryptonite.
Careful, Karl Snow might get PO’d at you also!!
…M&A
Tim Cook doesn’t have the cojones.
It’s a big strategic move, he’ll be too busy tweaking some element of Apple’s supply chain to look up whilst Google swoops in to buy them.
Not that Apple’s supply chain doesn’t need some work, with partners leaking so much info that there are no longer any surprises at Apple events, and production problems so that sales are constrained by lack of inventory.
Buy Finland is a better move.
I’ll move to Appleland.
Finnish boat anchor. Apple needs to avoid it like a week old fishhead. If it was that great a buy I’m sure Microsoft would have purchased it already. Apple would be better off going for RIM if it was for sale, just to get whatever patents it has. However, I think Apple should stay away from both of them and buy some sort of news media company to help them with bad press damage control.
Don’t buy that shit company Nokia. I worked there. It has turned into a stinking turd.
The purchases would never be approved.
Complete waste of money, by the time Nokia dies its slow death Apples map program will be done feature complete in comparison to the other map programs on the market.
Why wiuldn’t Apple want to be in the profit-ruining enterprise market? A judge would probably block the sale anyway. And Nokia execs? You want to take on abunch of loser engineers with incredibly high severance package costs from Finland? Nope. They had their time, they played their game. They can’t compete in the big leagues. Bye Nokia. You had me, you lost me. Sony Ericsson had me and lost me. I’ve had the Apple iPhone 1, 2, 3, 4 and now 5. And I’ve not paid more I’ve paid LESS than what I pays for my last two phones which I couldn’t use for email or WAP because I’m too stupid to use their products.
That article is idiotic. It cites Envision IP as examining Nokia’s patents, but then it turns around and conveniently ignores Envision own estimate of a well under $4B valuation for the portfolio.
And then it somehow leaps to the conclusion that Apple is paying Nokia between $5 and $7 per phone. in 2011 that would have amounted to as much as $750M. Does anyone in their right mind think Nokia received that kind of money? If so, where is it? It’s certainly not on their financial statement. For 2012 it would be close to a billion dollars, and for 2013 it would explode well past a billion dollars. With that kind of income Nokia would have a much higher valuation, as well as plenty of cash and a much more valuable patent portfolio.
The author is just making up facts as he goes along. He doesn’t bother to mention that Envision’s examination was a cursory one, even though they explicitly declare that right there in the article to which he linked. And of course it’s cursory. An in-depth examination of an extensive patent portfolio takes enormous time and effort. This was demonstrated by Google’s purchase of Motorola. Google had no idea what they were getting. They just hoped it would be good. Unfortunately reality set in and they bought a POS. Just like Apple would do if it bought Nokia. If the portfolio were really that good the company would already be long gone, so we know it’s not.
Just plain stupid. Really stupid.
This makes absolutely no sends except to a group of unrepentant fanboys.
Why Apple Should NOT Buy Beleaguered Nokia:
Because Nokia has nothing Apple wants or can use. Bye-bye Nokia.