[msdivy]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

So top guy leaves Microsoft. Joins another company. Takes some decisions which cause the share price to plummet, and then his former company buys the current company. Trojan Horse anyone?

Elop has already denied that - Nokia’s Stephen Elop denies being a Microsoft plant

BTW, there are reports that Elop is 7th largest Microsoft shareholder. This came up when Elop was named CEO of Nokia.

[Ford5]

Will Nokia shareholders allow this to happen? I mean is someone really going to buy a phone with "Microsoft" written on it?. I do feel that Nokia made a wrong choice by going ahead with Lumia as a platform and inturn got owned by it... Wish they hopped on to android, what with the legions of fans Nokia has across the globe.

[whitewing]

Nokia had an outer outer chance at cracking the smartphone market, now with Microsoft - of the Zune fame. RIP Nokia...

[santhosh_kumard]

The time Nokia decided to go with MS, I think the fate was sealed. They were dating, now got married .

MS was looking to acquire a company that could help them to create a complete eco-system ( a la IOS based ecosystem ). Nokia brilliantly fit into that plan. Sad that the valuation is just 7 Bn. I am not a big fanboy of MS, but I wish that they succeed in this venture and keep Apple and Google in check.

[pahwa]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

"Embrace and extinguish"

So top guy leaves Microsoft. Joins another company. Takes some decisions which cause the share price to plummet, and then his former company buys the current company. Trojan Horse anyone?

This is very shocking ofcourse. It seems it was a very well planned and executed over last 3 years. Nokia never adapted Android or developed a good OS internally - the events unfolding today make the reasons clear.

However, looking at the market today, I think it is a good decision for both organizations. They could survive in the cellphone/tablet market only with each others' support. Nokia's niche is in making great hardware and combined with Microsoft's software, it should eventually make Microsoft stronger than ever before.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by pahwa

. Nokia never adapted Android or developed a good OS internally - the events unfolding today make the reasons clear.

Most people think that the only salvation for Nokia would have been Android. But I disagree.
Before Elop, Nokia made a phone called N900. There was nothing in the market which even came close to that device.
Yes, Nokia had been whipped, and share price was dropping.
But tech giant intel was willing to sign in on meego development, and take up on the hardware front.
Elop joined, and a clear road map ahead was destroyed.
Even when nokia share price crashed, N900 etc., were selling in the open market at a price higher than the launch price, often commanding 20-30% premium.
Nokia was at the bottom, but the road ahead was bright. With meego and linux based arcitechture it was making a comeback.
Low end market was always Nokia's and if they had gone ahead with intel plans, you would have had a phone which would shame todays phones in 2012.
Every analysit and tech writer was waiting for the challenger to android and iPhone.
Sure US market was hard to crack, but the world was there for Nokia's taking. All of a sudden a new CEO comes, and devalues the company and then his previous company buys it.
If that is not a Trojan horse, I don't know what is.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by pahwa

This is very shocking ofcourse. It seems it was a very well planned and executed over last 3 years. Nokia never adapted Android or developed a good OS internally - the events unfolding today make the reasons clear.

However, looking at the market today, I think it is a good decision for both organizations. They could survive in the cellphone/tablet market only with each others' support. Nokia's niche is in making great hardware and combined with Microsoft's software, it should eventually make Microsoft stronger than ever before.

Great alliance I think. And everything these last 3-4 years has pointed to this only plausible route to survival, very clearly!
Good move and I am sire Nokia will claw its way to retaining at least some market share.
Thus are the Mighty fallen!

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by pahwa

This is very shocking ofcourse. It seems it was a very well planned and executed over last 3 years.

Originally Posted by msdivy

Elop has already denied that - Nokia’s Stephen Elop denies being a Microsoft plant

Nobody's going to believe that, as the quoted link shows Elop was called an MS plant in 2011. And today:

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/09/microsoft-nokia/

But they took way too long - 2.5 years in the handset space is equivalent a generation.

Two of the largest mobile handset pioneers (Motorola & Nokia) have been gobbled up by two large IT majors. The third (Ericsson) smartly left the terminal (handset) space and went back to its core strengths, and hence survives as a large, profitable organisation.

Microsoft isn't going to do much - they will probably buy Blackberry too, and try and bundle Windows Mobile, Skype and Blackberry services on a Nokia device.

And fail spectacularly.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Nobody's going to believe that:

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/09/microsoft-nokia/

When wired calls you a Trojan horse, you can be sure the title will stick for life

[pahwa]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Nobody's going to believe that:

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/09/microsoft-nokia/

Microsoft isn't going to do much - they will probably buy Blackberry too, and try and bundle Windows Mobile, Skype and Blackberry services on a Nokia device. And fail spectacularly.

Yes, Blackberry is next in the queue and this clearly shows the mantra of market today 'Innovate or perish'. I seriously hope Microsoft is not even remotely thinking of acquiring BlackBerry. That would be an outright failure!

Originally Posted by myavu

Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s devices & services business, license Nokia’s patents and mapping services

Cheers!

Vinu

What I wonder is, what is left for Nokia to do - maps gone, services gone, hardware gone!! Why isn't it called a complete takeover.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by pahwa

What I wonder is, what is left for Nokia to do - maps gone, services gone, hardware gone!! Why isn't it called a complete takeover.

The handset business is only a division of Nokia - they are first and foremost an engineering company that is a network equipment vendor and lately a managed services provider. Nokia has in the past built satellites, receivers etc - the fact that we only see their name on cellphones does not mean that is their entire business.

[azeemhafiz]

Who would have thought that the same company would pay approximately $1.5Billion more for Skype.

Elop's move to Nokia seems to be a deliberate effort on acquisition and now that Ballmer is out, he could even make a running for the top post at MSFT.

[pahwa]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

The handset business is only a division of Nokia - they are first and foremost an engineering company that is a network equipment vendor and lately a managed services provider. Nokia has in the past built satellites, receivers etc - the fact that we only see their name on cellphones does not mean that is their entire business.

Thanks for that. I was not aware of Nokia being in these domains.

Originally Posted by azeemhafiz

Who would have thought that the same company would pay approximately $1.5Billion more for Skype.

Elop's move to Nokia seems to be a deliberate effort on acquisition and now that Ballmer is out, he could even make a running for the top post at MSFT.

Yes, in comparison to Skype at 8.5 Billion USD, Nokia looks to be dirt cheap buy.

[deepaktpatil]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Trojan Horse anyone?

I used to work at Nokia when Stephen Ellop came on board and later announced shift to Windows mobile OS, call it conspiracy theory or whatevere, this was exact rumor going around during this time. In fact you will find lot of old blogs talking about this. In the hindsight I feel that this may be a stroke of genius from Microsoft's side the way they structured the terms and conditions of the old deal where Nokia changed the OS for its smartphone range. Key to this whole story was making Nokia agree tostop producing Symbian phones which were selling in good numbers ( around 20 million in a year I guess) at that point of time. With its revenue pipeline cut, Nokia's future depended now on Microsoft. This coupled with no improvement in Lumia sales everything started falling apart for Nokia. So in my opinion this scenario was one option for Nokia management which they were aware of and were ok with it, otherwise why would a company agree to such conditions.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

MS is limited to the computers on secretaries' desks.

This is the dollar figures of some MS software not found on secretaries desks.

Visual Studio - a billion dolllars.
ERP, CRM and Accounting Software - another billion dollars.
Microsoft Exchange - around 2.5 billion dollars.
SQL Server - around 3.5 billion dollars.
Windows Server - 6 billion dollars
Server management software - a billion dollars.

Microsoft makes really big money on Enterprise Software.