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Behind the Microsoft Write-Off of Nokia
UnknowingFool writes: Previously Microsoft announced they had written off the Nokia purchase for $7.6B in the last quarter. In doing so, Microsoft would create only the third unprofitable quarter in the company's history. Released on July 31, new financial documents detail some of the reasoning and financials behind this decision. At the core of the problem was that the Phone Hardware business was only worth $116M, after adjusting for costs and market factors. One of those factors was poor sales of Nokia handhelds in 2015. Financially it made more sense to write it all off.
Nokia was dying even before being bought by Microsoft. What killed them is Symbian, and their refusal to switch to Android when it was the time (2008/2009). When they decided to switch to Windows Phone, it was already too late.
What killed them is Symbian, and their refusal to switch to Android when it was the time
It actually was their refusal to open up Symbian at the right time and create a dev community around it . Had that been done, Nokia would have had the opportunity to leverage its dominant market share in the smart phone segment .
Actually what killed them was the CEO they hired to fix the company. Elop laid off most of the staff, bet the farm on using a phone OS that nobody wanted, ran the company into the ground and lost so much money that it had to sell the family silver to Microsoft.