The ignominious end of Nokia's handset hegemony

On Tuesday morning (Finnish time), Nokia announced that it was selling its handset business to Microsoft for €5.44b. The payment includes €3.79b for the division and €1.65b for a 10-year (non-exclusive) license to the Nokia patents necessary to operate that business. The deal is funded by Microsoft’s offshore profits that (as with most US-based multinationals) it has been unable to repatriate due to the US tax law.

A PDF published by Microsoft summarizes the deal:

• Microsoft acquires Nokia’s phone business
• Microsoft acquires Nokia’s Qualcomm, other key IP licenses
• Microsoft licenses Nokia’s patents for use across all Microsoft products
• Microsoft licenses ability to use Nokia HERE broadly in its products
• Nokia retains NSN [Nokia Siemens Networks], HERE, its CTO Office, and its patent portfolio
• Nokia and Microsoft cement original partnership with this deal before 2014 recommitment date

As a Microsoft shareholder, this seems like a final failed effort by Steve Ballmer to make big strategic moves to distract from the failure of his efforts to execute on the core businesses he inherited when becoming CEO in 2000.

Want proof? In the same PDF, Microsoft projects in 2018 an “assumed market share” of 15% for the Nokia (or Windows Phone) business. Microsoft hasn’t had 15% share since 2005, and its most recently quarterly share (like Nokia’s) was under 4%. As with all of Microsoft’s mobile strategy since then, the deal is more about hope than feasible strategies.

About the only good news is that the troubled Microsoft is acquiring the even-more-troubled Nokia for a song. Three years ago, Nokia’s handset division was grossing more than €6 billion per quarter; two years ago, Microsoft paid 20% more to buy Skype, a company without a business model.

Meanwhile, what about Nokia? Basically, its current and previous CEO have panicked as they have driven the company into the ground. Since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone, bought full control of Symbian Ltd. (and then killed it), switched from the once-dominant Symbian to the also-ran Windows platform, and now is exiting the business. All this from the company that was the world’s largest handset maker from 1998 until 2012.

The urgency of the deal for Nokia is evidenced by the key financial terms. Microsoft is “immediately” advancing Nokia €1.5b so it can keep the doors open until the deal closes — and Microsoft presumably assumes the salaries of 32,000 Nokia employees in the money-losing division.

It’s hard to see how losers buying losers (cheap) creates a winner. Yes, the mobile market is growing as Microsoft’s core business is dying. Yes, having a captive† handset manufacturer will justify keeping open the Windows Mobile division. But how will having a distant third place product with single-digit market share solve Microsoft’s numerous growth and profitability problems?

† Microsoft claims other licensees will continue, despite decades of failed licensing efforts by vertically integrated platform owners. Licensing didn’t work for Nokia with Symbian, didn’t work for Palm with Palm OS, didn’t work for Apple with Mac OS 8, and didn’t work for IBM with OS/2.