Nokia Shareholders Fight Back

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Nokia Shareholders Fight Back

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday February 15, 2011 @05:14AM from the shut-up-and-sit-down dept.

MohammedSameer writes "A group of nine young Nokia shareholders are fighting back. They posted an open letter for Nokia shareholders and investors asking to be elected in order to bring sanity back. They are also planning to challenge the company's strategy and partnership with Microsoft."

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Just trade in the Nokia for an Android by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-15 05:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

Sell NOK
Buy GOOG
1. Re:Just trade in the Nokia for an Android by CptPicard · 2011-02-15 07:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  This idea fails at the fact that Symbian is actually a far superior embedded OS than anything MS has to offer, and that, uh, they've been making phones that do other things than "just make calls" for the past decade or so.
  It's just that they failed to read the customer in the shininess department, that's all.
  
  --
  I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
almost tempted to buy some shares by Nursie · 2011-02-15 05:18 · Score: 5, Interesting

Just to join int, try to stop the company that made the best, most reliable phones for the longest time from being sold down the river by an MS plant.
1. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by timeOday · 2011-02-15 05:23 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  But if they're successful in thwarting the Microsoft takeover, then what? Arrive late at the Android party? Sell dumbphones for $14.99 at Target? Everybody criticises companies like Silicon Graphics for sticking with the old strategy too long, but also for jumping on the bandwagon (such as SGI taking a stab on NT).
  Being outmoded is an extremely difficult position to be in.
2. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by Lumpy · 2011-02-15 05:34 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  They still outsell ALL Android phones and Apple phones COMBINED. Nokia is the giant in Cellphones. Outside the usa they are still the first choice as Symbian offers features that Android does not or has not until recently. Honestly even my 3 year old 5800 Nokia smartphone has features that are just showing up for Android, and may some day hit Apple.
  They are hurting, but it's because of management that is worthless and nearly incompetent, and the company not having any direction.
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
3. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by Nursie · 2011-02-15 05:35 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Umm, no. They were in the lead for smartphones for quite a while (decade perhaps) and there's no reason not to be on top again.
  Outside the US they're still a well respected brand with a good market. RTFA for a good strategy. The last thing nokia need to become is a handset manufacturer for MS.
  The 'old' strategy was aimless development of so many different handsets it was nuts. They need to focus in on a real strategy.
4. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by Archangel+Michael · 2011-02-15 05:37 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The battle is on for the third tier phone OS. iOS and Android are the top two, everything else is an "also ran". This includes Palm's offering, Meego, Symbian, and WP7. You have four legitimate third tier phone OSes, two are offerings of Nokia.
  As for the other two, Microsoft would have to pay me to make a phone WP7(radioactive), and Palm's WebOS will only come on HP products (yawn). This leave Nokia with two viable third tier products, one Open source and similar enough to Android, and too far behind it to really matter, and Symbian, the $14.99 walmart phone.
  Nokia has lost the Smartphone market. UNLESS they do Android, and make a phone that is unlocked, easily rootable and with a "we support users not telcos" attitude.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
5. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by Desler · 2011-02-15 05:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Windows mobile in the past was absolute garbage
  Said by someone who most likely never used a WinMo OS. Unlike other phone OS during the formative years of WinMo it was always open for you to install any apps that you like, you could develop apps in C, C++, C#, etc of your choice and you could use frameworks like Qt, you could leverage existing code written against the Win32 API for use in WinMo apps (with some caveats of course) and was very customizable in comparison to almost any other OS for the times. If anything, the OSes running on other smartphones of the time were far more garbage than WinMo was.
6. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by Znork · 2011-02-15 05:52 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Meego is easily capable of running a Dalvik vm, and Alien Dalvik demonstrates the capability quite throughly. As that would leverage and extend the Android ecosystem, I can't quite see how it would be behind in any way. Essentially it would be the andoid+unlocked+rootable that you're looking for.
  
  One can see why Microsoft wants Nokia, but for Nokia, going with WP is utter folly; they're dumping their whole current workable and fairly easily fixable lineup for something that nobody wants.
  
  One can wonder what their plan is if WP gets canned with Ballmer in a not so far away future.
7. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by metamatic · 2011-02-15 06:06 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  As for the other two, Microsoft would have to pay me to make a phone WP7(radioactive)
  That's exactly why Nokia picked WP7.
  
  --
  GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
8. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by Nexus7 · 2011-02-15 06:07 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Indeed. I was impressed with the lack of silly metaphors, such as "burning oil platforms."
9. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by idontgno · 2011-02-15 06:12 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  If Meego is superior then where is it? Is it a Marketing Deficiency?
  Eerie coincidence:
  Amiga: at the time of its market debut, vastly superior in technology to its market competitors. Marketed like crap. Fell behind competitors as their technologies advanced past Commodore's anemic R&D.
  Meego: at the time of its market debut, vastly superior in technology to its market competitors. Marketed like crap. Fell behind competitors as their technologies advanced past Nokia's (soon-to-be) anemic R&D.
  Also, the names are disturbingly similar. As I said, eerie coincidence. Maybe.
  Why, yes, I was an Amiga warrior in the platform flamewars of the mid-80s. Why do you ask?
  
  --
  Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
10. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by metamatic · 2011-02-15 06:20 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  They didn't get enough from Microsoft.
  Of course not. Nobody ever does. One thing you can say about every business deal Microsoft has ever done, is that Microsoft came out best from every deal. Pretty much every company that gets into bed with Microsoft gets screwed.
  
  --
  GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
11. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by commodore6502 · 2011-02-15 06:20 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  >>>The 'old' strategy was aimless development of so many different handsets it was nuts.
  Apple circa 1995, when they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Commodore circa 1993 and they did go bankrupt. Too many models can confuse customers - better to focus on just a few.
  
  --
  Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
12. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by TheRaven64 · 2011-02-15 06:24 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  1) He said 'outside the USA'. 2) He said 'phones' not 'smartphones'. Symbian featurephones outsell ALL smartphones, (including Symbian, Android, and iOS). The featurephone / smartphone distinction is pretty arbitrary from a user perspective - both can run third-party apps, but smartphones must expose a larger set of APIs.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
13. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by RogerWilco · 2011-02-15 06:33 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The thing is that there are two problems for Nokia with that:
  1) The low end is slowly being eroded by cheaper offerings from China and India. Their top end is being squeezed out by iOS and Android. In the long run there will be no space between those for Nokia to exist.
  2) Margins. The cheaper less capable phones have very thin margins. Not enough to support any sizeable R&D effort. So that's another reason it's a dead end for Nokia.
  Nokia needs to be in the high end phone market and doing well there to survive in the long run as a mobile device maker.
  
  --
  RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
14. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by TheRaven64 · 2011-02-15 06:47 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Not sure about the 5800, but the one feature I actually care about in my current phone (four-and-a-bit-year-old N90) is that it has a built-in SIP client that integrates with the normal calling stuff, so when I'm near WiFi I can make cheaper calls. And the address book and calendar sync via bluetooth (seriously Apple, a cable for sync? What is this, 1995?). Oh, and tethering as a standard feature (you know, like it has been on every cheap phone I've bought since about 2002).
  None of these are really 'smartphone' features, they're just basic functionality that I've expected in every phone that I've bought (except SIP, which was only standard in my most recent purchase, in 2006), but which seem to be badly integrated optional extras on a lot of newer ones.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
15. Re:almost tempted to buy some shares by downhole · 2011-02-15 08:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You're saying there's no reason they can't be on top again? I can think of plenty of reasons. To have a successful modern smartphone OS, you need an application ecosystem. Apple has one. Android has one. Microsoft has a decent shot at building one. Nokia has had phone OSes for many years and has shown no ability to build an app ecosystem on the level that Apple and Android have. I think it's virtually certain that by the time they get anything new out the door, the overall ecosystem will be crowded enough that they won't have a chance, no matter how good the software is. Thus their future is to either get squeezed to death between better smartphones on top from Apple, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc and cheaper Chinese phones on bottom, or to adopt either Android or WinPhone 7. I can easily see WinPhone7 being a better deal right now.
  
  --
  I don't reply to ACs
Good luck with that by LucidBeast · 2011-02-15 05:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

I think the big guys have enough chips to keep this plan going. No matter what the plans merits are.
They might be on to something by toopok4k3 · 2011-02-15 05:21 · Score: 5, Interesting

I guess that a huge drop in the share value might mean that this plan B might get some actual backing from the majority of shareholders. The share has dropped around 20% since the Microsoft announcement.
wow 9 people!? by Megor1 · 2011-02-15 05:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why is this even being posted, it's 9 people who let me guess own 0.0000000% of the company? Next up 9 apple share holders want Steve Jobs to stop wearing turtlenecks.

--
Everyone that disagrees with me is a paid shill
1. Re:wow 9 people!? by QuincyDurant · 2011-02-15 06:00 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Even one share is enough to make some noise about it at the shareholder's meeting. They may not own much, but they speak for quite a crowd, methinks.
2. Re:wow 9 people!? by magarity · 2011-02-15 06:07 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Why is this even being posted, it's 9 people who let me guess own 0.0000000% of the company?
  Most big companies set the lower limit around 1,000 shares for anyone who wants to bring up any issue for a vote at the company shareholders' meeting. This can be anything from 'I nominate me to the board of directors' to 'presenters should not wear turtlenecks' to 'the company assets should be liquidated and the proceeds given to the homeless'. It then goes to a vote and since institutional investors who own a million shares at a time are there, anything frivolous or absurd gets immediately voted down.
Re:Somebody had fun by MikeDirnt69 · 2011-02-15 05:25 · Score: 5, Funny

Index: http://nokiaplans.com/

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Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
Anything else? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-02-15 05:32 · Score: 5, Funny

Dear /.,
We get it, you hate us. What else is new?
- MSFT
Just another /. post that won't hold weight by Stregano · 2011-02-15 05:36 · Score: 3, Informative

From TFA:

Aggressively recruit young software talent from top universities. Nokia Recruiting to actively visit top universities worldwide to screen and and invite top students for interviews in Nokia R&D locations. Establish a credible and rewarding technical career progression path in Nokia (to avoid the best talent leaving the company or becoming management overhead). Offer internationally competitive salaries to new talent (if necessary, significantly above local market salaries). Establish Nokia as a company where the best and the brightest want to work.
Yeah, keep dreaming kid. I tried to get a job at Google, Microsoft, and other big companies right out of the gate and that did not happen. Do you honestly think it will happen, ever? I wish the world worked that way, but it doesn't. As a big company, do you think they would rather hire some kid right out of the gate that has no experience in cell phone programming/Symbian, or a person that has been doing it for 5 years? Be realistic with some of this.

This sounds like some college kids making a letter to say that they would want to do a takeover of the company (TFA

If you elect us to a majority in the Nokia Board of Directors we will take the following concrete actions:
).

I came to the college kids conclusion from the fact that anybody in the industry would not say that they would pull in college kids right out of the gate without experience. That is a huge risk.

Seriously, what they want to do is take-over, fire everybody, stop all out sourcing, and bring in college kids. That sentence summarizes the article quite nicely. Unless they had some weight as share-holders, this is just something posted on /. that will either get laughed at or never see the light of day at anybody who has weight in Nokia.

--
The world is how you make it
Re:The nine are wrong. by Zelgadiss · 2011-02-15 05:41 · Score: 3, Insightful

amazing how much hate MS gets just for being Microsoft
It's a reputation they have earned over the decades.
You reap what you sow.
Someone please tell me... by hellfire · 2011-02-15 05:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

... how posting a Facebook page is "fighting back?"

--
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Re:If it fails, then they can fall back on plan c by tagno25 · 2011-02-15 05:54 · Score: 3, Informative

http://nokiaplans.com/
Nokia Plans
Nokia Plan A
Nokia Plan B
Nokia Plan C
Nokia Plan D
Nokia Plan E
Nokia Plan F (SFW)
Nokia Plan F (NSFW)
Nokia Plan G
Nokia Plan H
Nokia Plan K
Nokia Plan M
Nokia Plan O
Nokia Plan P
Nokia Plan Q
Nokia Plan S
Nokia Plan T
Nokia Plan X
Nokia Plan Y
Nokia Plan Z
Nokia Plan 0
Nokia Plan 5
Nokia Plan 9
Re:Arrogant Finns by duranaki · 2011-02-15 06:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

I don't agree at all. I worked for Nokia for 10 years and worked with many Finns. I think the groups point is not "Finland is so great" but rather Nokia's distributed R&D efforts are horribly inefficient. Having experienced it from the inside, I can see their point. And they do have a very large talented asset base in Finland, so it makes sense to keep that as a focal point. That said, they have absolutely no hope of getting "top talent" to go work in Finland.
Their CEO is right by eyrieowl · 2011-02-15 06:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

that they have a bad hand, and that they're playing a desperate game for the life of the company. Yes, they could do a bunch of other things...and none of them would be great for them. At this point, they do not have a winning hand. There is no winning move for them. The choice he made is a pragmatic one, to stay in the game. It doesn't mean it has to be their 50 year strategy, but it keeps them in the game for the next 3-5 years at least and that's crucial. They screwed up, and it's not the recent decision that was the big mistake. They missed the boat...arguing about why doesn't really change the basic fact that they missed the boat...and they are left in a precarious position. No, the MS way isn't going to get them to #1, or #2. But they can be #3. They can't run iOS...so they're cut off from apps on that platform. They can't be RIM...so they're cut off from that. They could do Android, and probably do it well...but he's right, that they would be subject to severe price pressure and that it would be brutally competitive, low margin. It would gut the company. Any of the other options, save MS, would consign them to the Nokia ghetto, with few apps, no significant community. Going with MS at this point is the only option which helps them to keep profit margins more than razor thin and also gets them access to a larger community, as well as a built in market, that they otherwise wouldn't have. IN THE MEANTIME...if they don't bust their butts on R&D and get out ahead of the next game changer, they will eventually fade away, but at least this buys them time to do that.
Sometimes, the best move is just staying in the game, and they've done that. Yeah, I know, there's lots of risk, and lots of people would want anything but to be wedded to Microsoft, but...sorry guys, too little too late.