Microsoft to buy Nokia's Devices and Services in $7.2B deal

[fjtorres]

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/micr...eal-8C11063106

Microsoft will buy "substantially all" of Nokia's devices and services business and license Nokia's patents and mapping services in a deal the companies valued at $5.44 billion euros, or about $7.2 billion, the companies announced late Monday.

More details to come.

Pretty much settles who the next MS CEO will be and kills the rumors of an XBOX spinoff.

From CNET:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57...ices-division/

From Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/...9-02email.aspx

We announced some exciting news today: We have entered into an agreement to purchase Nokia’s Devices & Services business, which includes their smartphone and mobile phone businesses, their award-winning design team, manufacturing and assembly facilities around the world, and teams devoted to operations, sales, marketing and support.

[image: Maurits Knook / Flickr]

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/micr...eal-8C11063106



More details to come.

Pretty much settles who the next MS CEO will be and kills the rumors of an XBOX spinoff.

Great news for Windows Phone and Nokia, no Android and no Chinese buyer.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Great news for Windows Phone and Nokia, no Android and no Chinese buyer.

Also puts further pressure on MS OEM partners to step up their game.

[tubemonkey]

Looks like Microsoft finally discovers the world of mobile phones

Still, they're late to the game. The world is Android and iOS.

[Alexander Turcic]

So Microsoft is becoming a hardware player now. I am speechless at the news.

[m00min]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Also puts further pressure on MS OEM partners to step up their game.

I think it's more likely they'll just focus more on Android and ditch the Win Phones.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by m00min

I think it's more likely they'll just focus more on Android and ditch the Win Phones.

They already did --- and in HTC's case not very successfully. It is very hard for anyone but Samsung and the low-end manufacturers to make money with Android devices.

I think MS bought Nokia because they were afraid somebody else would buy them and stop working with MS.

[David Munch]

Rumors also come out now, that the current CEO of Nokia might be taking Ballmers spot. Very interesting, and a good development for MS!

[pdurrant]

It seems an amazingly cheap price for a business that had annual revenues of over $50 billion just a couple of years ago, and still has a quarterly revenue of £7.5 billion.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Looks like Microsoft finally discovers the world of mobile phones

Still, they're late to the game. The world is Android and iOS.

Things change.
Even before this deal, WinPhone was growing market share faster than anybody.
The Balmer email makes it clear that the Nokia units will now be Microsoft's hardware unit; don't think this is just about phones. Tablets, of course. But with a top-notch hardware design team in-house and a mandate to go after the consumer market there is a whole range of possibilities now open. We may yet see the Courier. Or a Zune 2.

Try this: now it makes sense for MS to buy Nook.
It also makes sense to make good on the long-standing "threat" to buy AMD.

Things change and they just did.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It seems an amazingly cheap price for a business that had annual revenues of over $50 billion just a couple of years ago, and still has a quarterly revenue of £7.5 billion.

Revenues but not profits.
Cellphones has become a business for giants: Samsung, LG, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Huawei...
Sony has some thinking to do now.
And one has to think HTC is in play. HP, maybe...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Revenues but not profits.

Oh yes, revenue, not profit. But it still seems cheap to me. Nokia have amazing brand recognition.

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Looks like Microsoft finally discovers the world of mobile phones

Still, they're late to the game. The world is Android and iOS.

LOL, oh come on. I have had a few Windows Mobile devices. I had a Pocket PC, which is kinda like today's iPod Touch, except it had very little space. They were doing pretty good in the smartphone space when there WASN'T a smartphone space too (my dad had a HTC made one). 38.8% before the iPhone showed up, and then Blackberry grew pass them. But they had already beat Palm by 2006.

And it was better software by far. You had Windows Media Player, you could sideload whatever you want, including RealPlayer for live streaming, and whatever you wanted really.

And now I have a Nokia Lumia 520, great phone. And they actually make software to sync it with for OS X.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh yes, revenue, not profit. But it still seems cheap to me. Nokia have amazing brand recognition.

But we don't know if the brand is included, long term.
The rest of Nokia might get renamed or maybe the phones transition from "Nokia Lumia" to just Lumia.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Things change.
Even before this deal, WinPhone was growing market share faster than anybody.
The Balmer email makes it clear that the Nokia units will now be Microsoft's hardware unit; don't think this is just about phones. Tablets, of course. But with a top-notch hardware design team in-house and a mandate to go after the consumer market there is a whole range of possibilities now open. We may yet see the Courier. Or a Zune 2.

I don't see Win Phones ever getting higher than a distant 3rd; and Zune HD 2 better have an app store or it'll fail like the first one did.