Nokia primed for takeover - trading at 38% of value

[noah.dreams]

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By Olga Kharif and Diana ben-Aaron - 2012-06-15T12:34:41Z

Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)’s steepest stock drop in more than a decade is turning the mobile-device maker into a potential takeover target for buyers willing to bet that it still has a future in smartphones.

Nokia plunged 18 percent yesterday after forecasting a wider second-quarter operating loss from handsets and saying it will cut as many as 10,000 jobs as it cedes market share to Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co. devices. After wiping out about $100 billion in market value, Espoo, Finland- based Nokia trades at a 38 percent discount to its net assets, the least expensive on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg dating back to 1995.

Once Europe’s most valuable company, Nokia is losing money as it tries to rebuild the smartphone business around Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Windows Phone software and after failing to sell an unprofitable equipment venture with Siemens AG. (SIE) With the lowest price-sales multiple among communications-equipment makers, cash and short-term investments exceeding its $8.6 billion market value and more than 10,000 patent families, Nokia could attract Microsoft, said Falcon Point Capital LLC. It may even be cheap enough to lure buyout firms, Avian Securities LLC said.

“The key question is, can they do something to turn this into a growth business again?” Michael Mahoney, senior managing director at Falcon Point in San Francisco, said in a telephone interview. “If they can just make it grow, even a little bit, it’s very cheap.”

Doug Dawson, a spokesman at Nokia, declined to comment on speculation about a possible sale.

[Sebhelyesfarku]

Nokia is ****ing dead. They should go back to manufacture rubber boots they started with.

[ROKstrr]

The Lukia 900 was DOA to an extent because of questions of upgradability to Win8. That being said, Win8 phones need to get to market sooner than later (need to be available by Thanksgiving).
Understand how the cycle works (look @ Motorola), Nokia is one Jesus phone away from viability ... and most savvy analysts have predicted Windows Mobile rise, much like Apple (iOS) and most recently Android. Android will never become an enterprise solution, because of it's fragmentation and memory inefficient OS. Apple will (once again) be supplanted by MS in the enterprise to some extent ... and the bottom line is NOKIA has always made a damn good piece of hardware, if it gets the OS end in line, the future looks brighter.
I personally would buy the Lumia 900, if it definitely supported the new OS (Win8). The silence is deafening, which would indicate a tactical error in rushing the Lumia 900 to market, without support for future upgrades.
I am contemplating buying NOKIA (once it hits rock bottom, c/b today) on a rebound in Q1 2013.

[terre08]

The Lukia 900 was DOA to an extent because of questions of upgradability to Win8. That being said, Win8 phones need to get to market sooner than later (need to be available by Thanksgiving).
Understand how the cycle works (look @ Motorola), Nokia is one Jesus phone away from viability ... and most savvy analysts have predicted Windows Mobile rise, much like Apple (iOS) and most recently Android. Android will never become an enterprise solution, because of it's fragmentation and memory inefficient OS. Apple will (once again) be supplanted by MS in the enterprise to some extent ... and the bottom line is NOKIA has always made a damn good piece of hardware, if it gets the OS end in line, the future looks brighter.
I personally would buy the Lumia 900, if it definitely supported the new OS (Win8). The silence is deafening, which would indicate a tactical error in rushing the Lumia 900 to market, without support for future upgrades.
I am contemplating buying NOKIA (once it hits rock bottom, c/b today) on a rebound in Q1 2013.

The 808 will most likely be my last Nokia. I might buy a win 8 Nokia if I can get an unlocked one. If I can't find an unlocked Nokia win8 phone I might as well go for the iPhone on a contract although I am not an Apple fan either. I have an Android tablet and frankly I am not that impressed with the OS. It might get better when Google start manufacturing their own phones given they just bought Motorola.

[jjprusk]

and the bottom line is NOKIA has always made a damn good piece of hardware, if it gets the OS end in line, the future looks brighter.

Definitely agree that Nokia builds good hardware and have great experience on the hardware side of the business. It will be interesting to see who winds up buying them - I was shocked to see Google purchase Motorola. That's quite a leap to producing high volume, high quality phones from their software background. The phone companies have generally failed with software (Palm with the Treo OS, Motorola with their proprietary software, Nokia with Symbian, etc.). I suspect this shows that the design has to be driven from the software and view the hardware as simply there to support the hardware (and not the other way around). That's certainly the approach Apple takes with great success and M$ has taken with gaming to great success as well. I still think M$ should focus on gaming and the "gamification" of everything and get out of the OS business. Spin off Windows into a separate company, stop throwing away all of the wasted investment $$$, and then open source it and maybe the community could do something with it. The days of selling OS for big $$$ are rapidly dwindling - many technologies are converging to put the final nails in the coffin on this one.

[ROKstrr]

Definitely agree that Nokia builds good hardware ... The phone companies have generally failed with software (Palm with the Treo OS, Motorola with their proprietary software, Nokia with Symbian, etc.).

Have used Symbian for apprx the last 4 years (Nokia E71 - great phone, small screen & Nokia N8 - current, still want more screen). The latest permutation (Belle) is actually quite good. The memory management was addressed, I noticed a signifcant difference after installing Belle, with 256mb of RAM (not storage).

As with any OS, it's something U get used to & MeeGo Harmattan (no experience, just research) could have been the future. My N8 does everything any other phone does (except NFC) & if the screen was in the 4" range, I'd probably be keeping it long term.

I'm currently torn between the Nokia Lumia 900 (if it supported Win8), the Nokia N9 (no US warranty, solid phone), the Sony Experia Ion (intrigued by the specs) and Samsung Galaxy S III (if I'm going Android, I should go all the way) with the possibility of waiting for the Win8 Lumias to drop. The Samsung Note keeps bringing me back to it, there's gotta be a reason the price is still so high (market drives the price, thus still demand & higher mfg cost).

[Dr Tran]

If Nokia doesn't want to die, the next lines of Lumia phones need Verizon/Sprint support. The rest of the world will follow.

If Nokia wants a Jesus phone, it will have to hit all 4 US carriers at once like the Galaxy S3 will.

[mrstarr]

jesus phone:

Windows 8 + Pureview

[go0gle]

This is a tricky one.. Microsoft has the cash, but I don't think they will go for it because of all the legal issues they will have to face in the EU.

Either way, Microsoft is getting the most out of Nokia .. it was a brilliant move by Microsoft overall.

My route is 808 -> WP8 in 12-18 months time. Symbian is fine .. i don't have any issues with it except the browser, which should run better on the 808 anyway. I might get a white N9..just for the collection and occasional use.

808 and N9 are the last "real" Nokia phones.. kind of sad.

[ORK]

The Lukia 900 was DOA to an extent because of questions of upgradability to Win8. That being said, Win8 phones need to get to market sooner than later (need to be available by Thanksgiving).
Understand how the cycle works (look @ Motorola), Nokia is one Jesus phone away from viability ... and most savvy analysts have predicted Windows Mobile rise, much like Apple (iOS) and most recently Android. Android will never become an enterprise solution, because of it's fragmentation and memory inefficient OS. Apple will (once again) be supplanted by MS in the enterprise to some extent ... and the bottom line is NOKIA has always made a damn good piece of hardware, if it gets the OS end in line, the future looks brighter.
I personally would buy the Lumia 900, if it definitely supported the new OS (Win8). The silence is deafening, which would indicate a tactical error in rushing the Lumia 900 to market, without support for future upgrades.
I am contemplating buying NOKIA (once it hits rock bottom, c/b today) on a rebound in Q1 2013.

It was DOA because it has crappy camera, no bluetooth file transfer, and is heavy and fat as brick for 4.3 incher.

[abhishekkjain]

Will Nokia ever bring Android Mobile Phones?
I am waiting for it.

[rambo47]

Nokia announced they were going "all in" on WP and they secured a $1 Billion investment from Microsoft for doing so. If they're ever going to use Android it will not be for at least a year. Their new bosses in Redmond won't hear of it.