Ten years ago, Nokia was worth more than $75 Billion in market capitalization. It declined to just above $6 Billion in mid-2012. It might have been worth well below $5 Billion in 2014. Given Nokia’s desperate situation, its agreement to move in with Microsoft on 3 September 2013 was something of a minor business coup for it. Some business analysts claim that a year from now Nokia’s business might well turn out to be worth nothing.
Not that long ago, Nokia was the world’s dominant mobile-phone maker. Today, it has just three per cent of the global smartphone market. Given Nokia’s desperate situation it was almost impossible for it to find a suitor but then Ballmer suffering from its own impossible difficulties walked by. Nokia’s CEO told Steve Ballmer “Have I got a deal for you?”. Ballmer looking for any deal at all, got sucked in.
We wish Microsoft, “The Evil Empire”, and Nokia to live happily together for ever.
