Official: Microsoft To Acquire Nokia Devices and Services Business 535
Many submitted, and symbolset emailed me to wake up, sending this bit of interesting news out of Redmond: "Microsoft Corporation and Nokia Corporation today announced that the Boards of Directors for both companies have decided to enter into a transaction whereby Microsoft will purchase substantially all of Nokia's Devices & Services business, license Nokia's patents, and license and use Nokia's mapping services. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will pay EUR 3.79 billion to purchase substantially all of Nokia's Devices & Services business, and EUR 1.65 billion to license Nokia's patents, for a total transaction price of EUR 5.44 billion in cash. Microsoft will draw upon its overseas cash resources to fund the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, subject to approval by Nokia's shareholders, regulatory approvals and other closing conditions."
And, yep, Elop is part of the deal (quoting Ballmer): "Stephen Elop will be coming back to Microsoft, and he will lead an expanded Devices team, which includes all of our current Devices and Studios work and most of the teams coming over from Nokia, reporting to me."
Times of India has the MS Email (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)
So Elop left Microsoft to head up Nokia, where he made supposedly very idiotic changes that had the effect of destroying Nokia's share price. Microsoft then buys Nokia at a fraction of the cost it would otherwise have been, and Elop returns to a prestigious role at Microsoft, where he's in with a shot at the CEO role.
That doesn't look the slightest bit dodgy at all.
EMBRACE EXTEND EXTINGUISH.
We saw it coming (Score:5, Informative)
I worked at Nokia from 2011-2012. Everyone was saying then that the reason for Elop (who was otherwise so useless) was to devalue Nokia enough that it would be a good deal for Microsoft. And here we are... the other shoe drops. But there will be a third shoe when he becomes CEO of Microsoft. They deserve each other.
Glad they Sold Off Qt First (Score:5, Informative)
I am certainly glad they sold off Qt first. If Microsoft got their hands on it the writing would be on the wall even in the face of pledges to KDE.
NSA (Score:2, Informative)
Microsoft will now add a NSA backdoor into every Nokia phone.
Before MS commits it to the memory hole... (Score:5, Informative)
As Quoted from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2010/sep10/09-09statement.aspx [microsoft.com]: (Archive mirror [archive.org])
Microsoft Business Division Transition
Sept. 09, 2010
E-mail to Microsoft full-time employees from Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer.
Sept. 9, 2010
I am writing to let you know that Stephen Elop has been offered and has accepted the job as CEO of Nokia and will be leaving Microsoft, effective immediately. Stephen leaves in place a strong business and technical leadership team, including Chris Capossela, Kurt DelBene, Amy Hood and Kirill Tatarinov, all of whom will report to me for the interim.
The MBD business continues to grow and thrive, with 15 percent growth in the last quarter. It has been good to see the great response to Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, the growth of our Dynamics business and the way we have been successful in extending all our MBD products and services to the cloud. I appreciate the way that Stephen has been a good steward of the brand and business in his time here, and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role at Nokia.
Please join me in wishing Stephen well.
Steve
Re:Future of Nokia, future of WP (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft is buying the nav/maps too.
Not according to the press release [nokia.com]:
Following the transaction, Nokia plans to focus on its three established businesses, each of which is a leader in enabling mobility in its respective market segment: NSN, a leader in network infrastructure and services; HERE, a leader in mapping and location services; and Advanced Technologies, a leader in technology development and licensing.
Re:and there goes the Nokia Android (Score:3, Informative)
Rubbish, not insightful. Nokia were a world leader and I loved their gear until Elop threw away their technology and embraced Windows phone crap. Look at Nokia most successful products, not based on Windows phone. He deserved to be sacked, quoted as being the worst CEO ever.
Re:and there goes the Nokia Android (Score:3, Informative)
Nokia isn't going to enter the phone business anytime soon, but Nokia's former employees have already launched a new company called Jolla, and their phone (with Sailfish OS) is being produced as we speak.
Re:Textbook case (Score:5, Informative)
This should be a high profile case for investigation by the EU commissioner for industry. In the end Nokia was a EU company which was the victim of a hostile takeover from a US company. We should al send a formal complaint to this guy http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/tajani/contact/commissioner/index_en.htm [europa.eu]
Re:Suddenly, the money is in hardware. (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft crushed its competition via illegal and immoral tactics by controlling the underlying operating system. Throwing up fake error messages when running rival products to make them seem unstable, using hidden APIs to give their own products an unnassailable advantage, even pretending IE was built into the OS to ensure it came pre-bundled onto every computer. The one I didn't like was when a new company announced a great new product, Microsoft would fake having the same product coming out shortly after. Everybody would wait for the "official" Microsoft version, the new company would go bankrupt, and Microsoft would buy them for pennies and release their software.
On an even playing field Microsoft has never done so well. On phones and tablets their propensity to launch slow and buggy products has come back to bite them. The Xbox did ok but they took an awful hit to get it where it is today. The best product they ever made was their mouse, so I guess they can do hardware :-)
Phillip.
Re:and there goes the Nokia Android (Score:5, Informative)
Meh, replying to my own post. Found this:
http://www.telecoms.com/22503/nokia%E2%80%99s-problem [telecoms.com]
The N97 was the phone I was thinking of although ALL of their Nxx devices were crap.
And there were so MANY of them! Why have 5 SKUs where 500 will do? Always doing the networks' bidding...
Yes, I have also discovered HTML formatting too - sorry about original post.
Re:and there goes the Nokia Android (Score:5, Informative)
Meego was another Maemo, not WebOS, it have its own lineage as example. Was sabotaged by Symbian fans inside Nokia first, then the days before it was released Elop said that it had no future, cut all future hopes for development for the platform, and released just one phone with it, just because already made it. Is even against that that sold pretty well. And yes, sold better than the Windows 7.x phones that Microsoft killed before they come out to the market saying that they will have no future neither (but most people that buys windows phone only hears windows phone, not version, so even with that had sales).
Anyway, wasn't the end of the road, there is hope on Qt-based cellphones still. From it derived Sailfish that is about to come out (the first batch already sold out), and Tizen, that Samsung could start making phones with it.
Re:Hmm... (Score:2, Informative)
It's just incredible. I don't even blame Microsoft that much. What the hell was the Nokia board thinking? "Oh, this guy has run our company to the ground, he seems ok! Let's give him a few more years as CEO."
Duh. It wasn't Elop who ran the company to the ground. Nokia was fucked up looong before Elop arrived at the scene. The core of the problem was them being stuck with Symbian, which was a slow, clunky to use and very buggy phone operating system. Then Android and iPhone arrived which basically stomped all over Nokia. At that point Nokia accepted the Windows Phone deal as an emergency solution. And then we can fast forward to the present day.
Resistance is futile .. (Score:4, Informative)
BBC failed Digital Project Cancelled [ibtimes.co.uk]
Project Kangaroo Cancelled [theregister.co.uk]
Highfield joins Microsoft after just four months at Project Kangaroo [theregister.co.uk]
BBC appoints Microsoft man to control future media [informitv.com]
Re:Beware of Microsofties bearing gifts (Score:5, Informative)
Read a little Tomi: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/ [blogs.com]
NOK was not even close to dead/dying when Elop was brought in. His 'burning platform' memo killed it.