Rumor: Microsoft to buy Nokia smartphone division in 2012

[Shawn Knight]

Microsoft may be poised to purchase Nokia’s smartphone division by the middle of 2012. Analysts at Danske Bank sparked speculation in a report in which they said a deal with Microsoft “makes sense”, according to Bloomberg.

A deal with Redmond has been rumored ever since Nokia named Microsoft executive Stephen Elop as their CEO in September 2010. Nokia shipped their first smartphones running Windows Phone operating system this quarter. The Lumia 800 and 710 were introduced in late October and have been billed by many as the best Windows Phones yet.

Such a merger could be good for both businesses as Microsoft competes with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems for market share.

Nokia stock rose as much as 3.2 percent based on the report. Danske Bank has even changed their recommendation on Nokia from “hold” to “buy”. Company stock has declined significantly in the past year, losing roughly 50 percent of its value since January. Nokia is currently valued around $19.1 billion.

A deal with Nokia wouldn’t be the first high profile acquisition in recent memory. In August, Google agreed to purchase Motorola’s mobile unit for $12.5 billion. The deal is still pending customary regulatory approvals but if passed, it would mark Google’s largest-ever acquisition.

A spokesman for Nokia, Doug Dawson, denied the report in an email statement to Bloomberg, saying the company put these rumors to rest a long time ago.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/46663-rumor-microsoft-to-buy-nokia-smartphone-division-in-2012.html

 

[supportme]

But why have they put a picture of Nokia Siemens Networks which is completely different... ???

 

[treeski]

No, it won't happen. Nokia would never sell off JUST its smart phone division. No mobile manufacturer will survive without a smart phone division in this era. Sure, Nokia currently sells the most mobile phones and yes, there is still a HUGE market for regular cell phones, but that market is only going to decline.

 

[Guest]

Nokia + Android OS = Amazing
Nokia + Windows OS = ok

They should have gone with Android somehow, I think.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft must purchase Nokia or else Nokia may start putting Android on them and then people will realize how bad Windows Phone actually is. If Nokia loads Android I would buy it, but NEVER will buy it with Windows Phone OS.

I am sure there are many people that will buy a phone with Windows Phone OS, but that is mainly because they have the extra money to keep paying for upgrades and like the fact that Microsoft changes the UI every few years.

 

[Chazz]

lol@ guests. Nothing you said is correct. You don't even have to research to know this, stop trolling.

 

[nismo91]

im using wp7 for awhile and i can tell nokia will definitely benefit with windows phone. android is customizable and all but it is simply complicated. people choose nokia for simplicity and windows phone can deliver. few friends borrowed my phone and yet to ask me how to get out of an app or how to go to this app and all. nobody ever complained my phone not being fluid enough, even though it's in pretty bad shape. i think this is very important to fix people mindset about nokia being laggy (symbians).

the only problem is the nokia lumia 800 now. the colored version (i suppose) face this battery and wifi issues. after this heavy marketing - invite for free xboxes, headsets, launch party, etc it'd be a shame if their first WP7 flagship device suffer from these problems. and worst part is nokia didn't seem to be able to completely fixed it. a friend of mine sent his cyan one for repair, it turns out they decided to gave him a new replacement. wait a minute, the new replacement also suffers from the battery issue so he will have to wait again.

i hope you guys in states doesnt get these 'bad' batches of lumia series.

 

[Archean]

Guest said:
Microsoft must purchase Nokia or else Nokia may start putting Android on them and then people will realize how bad Windows Phone actually is. If Nokia loads Android I would buy it, but NEVER will buy it with Windows Phone OS.

I am sure there are many people that will buy a phone with Windows Phone OS, but that is mainly because they have the extra money to keep paying for upgrades and like the fact that Microsoft changes the UI every few years.

On the contrary, I have tried several Android smartphones, and frankly, I am not impressed, it is sluggish, buggy, and have security issues just like all other platforms, so IMO primary reason for its success has been its questionable nature of 'open source' and being a 'freebie' OS.