Nokia’s fall from grace as the world’s leader in the mobile phone industry has been well documented. Reports of buyouts from Microsoft and Samsung have sparked some interest this year but thus far, nothing has materialized. This led the team at The Register to look deeper into the potential acquisition by Microsoft and this is what they found.
According to their “well-placed” sources, Microsoft was given access to Nokia’s books late last year as part of an evaluation process to see which (if any) divisions were worth purchasing. As the story goes, Microsoft wasn’t impressed with what they saw and walked away from any potential acquisition.
This of course means that rumors of a Microsoft buyout from earlier this year were completely baseless but gained traction regardless because the whole idea seemed plausible. The publication points out that there are two simple reasons why Microsoft doesn’t already own Nokia: Microsoft didn’t want to buy and Nokia didn’t want to sell.
Both companies still have cash and time on their hands. Nokia could mount a comeback in the next 18 months and Microsoft could have a much stronger ecosystem by then. But in the event that Nokia still hasn’t made significant gains, a buyout from Microsoft would make much more sense at that point.
Nokia shares recently fell to a 15-year low and have lost $0.40 in value in the past 90 days. Things were starting to look up on Friday as prices climbed six percent per share following rumors of a Samsung buyout but as of writing, those gains have fully diminished as the stock sits at $2.83.
