Its Now Official, Nokia Shareholders Approved the Deal

So its over. Nokia shareholder meeting today approved the sale of Nokia's handset business to Microsoft. Congrats Microsoft for picking up Nokia's huge handset business at a bargain price. It is a poisoned chalice however, as under Microsoft ownership, the smartphone business will never turn into anything worth keeping at Microsoft. The Lumia/Windows Phone business unit will at some point be closed down at Microsoft after enough money is thrown into that endless pit...

A few quick notes from the shareholder meeting (I was not present, I only monitored news via YLE and Helsingin Sanomat). Chairman Siilasmaa admitted that yes, there had been offers from other potential buyers when they negotiated with Microsoft (who told you so?). And they revealed that Nokia's royalty per Lumia handset was 10 US dollars. And that Microsoft was paying now 20 dollars per handset of marketing expenses (on top of Nokia's millions) to support the handsets (that still were selling at severe losses every quarter).

Ok, its about time to close the episode in our lives that was called 'my first phone' haha.. Bye-bye Nokia, we will sorely miss you in handsets. My requiem to Nokia is here. And we wish the newer, slimmer, to be dropped from Fortune Global 500 next year, Nokia very much good fortune on its ways to new opportunities.

I will soon release my book on the Elop Effect, it needs to be recorded for history as the biggest management failure of any global market leader in economic history of humankind.

Comments

[foo]

> I will soon release my book on the Elop Effect, it needs to be recorded for history
> as the biggest management failure of any global market leader in economic
> history of humankind.

Yay!!! \o/

Will it be available on Kindle?

[RobDK]

Great idea with the Elop Effect book, Tomi!!

Write it carefully and precisely, and you will have business school bestseller on your hands!!

[vladkr]

The news in just two pictures :

http://tbreak.com/tech/files/burrycomp.jpg

http://tbreak.com/tech/files/iphonecelebrationhearst.jpg

[vladkr]

Will Nokia survive, with its money-loosing Mapping unit (which might be swallowed by MS as well in some time) and its no less fragile Network division ?

[So Vatar]

Good bye, Nokia. It was fun while it lasted.

So, there you have it, Google and Samsung are the big winners of this round of the smartphone wars. Apple found its very profitable niche. Nokia handsets are gone.

Microsoft the evil empire embraced another company until it suffocated and died and sold itself for scrap.

Nokia management - Board and CEO - was either a shameful bunch of incompetent leaders and helplessly unqualified to steer a big company through turbulent waters, or worse had a different agenda not aligned with what was best for Nokia but what was best for someone else - or themselves.

I really hope Elop gets the job as MS CEO. He would prove himself again and make MS burn, crash, and fold, all the while pocketing Millions and Millions into his own coffers. It would be fun to watch!

[R]

I'm very pessimistic about the remaining Nokia.

The Maemo and Qt divisions were the only divisions that I really cared for. The rest I regarded cautiously.

Now Nokia retains its incompetent board of directors and, most importantly, a patent war chest. They're potentially going to wage war on the entire technology industry. This possibility does not make me happy.

[EmmanuelM]

Seriously Tomi, we are waiting for this book.. You have to write it, somebody needs to tell the story.. Thanks in advance

[vladkr]

Will Espoo see an Elopinkatu (umpikuja) someday ?

[Asko]

99,5% of shareholders that voted (pre or present) supported the board's proposal to sell the Devices & Services mainly to Microsoft.

It seems that many shareholders supported both the board's and Elop's three year mission based on the applauses when one of the shareholder defended the board and Elop. I think that tells about how many Nokia's shareholders don't really understand anything about mobile markets or managing companies.

One shareholder asked does Risto Siilasmaa support Jorma Ollila's view that the downfall of Nokia is because Nokia's Finnish workers don't know how to do software. Siilasmaa denied that and said he believes in Finnish software skills.

[Asko]

And one more thing: Risto Siilasmaa was very impressed about N9 and MeeGo but according to him Nokia abondoned MeeGo because the management didn't believe they could build a viable ecosystem around it.

Now we will see if Jolla is able to do it instead.

[vladkr]

@Asko:

In three years, it's the first time shareholders are asked anything, and the question is quite easy :

"Do you want to sell Nokia to MS and get some dividends, or do you want to block the sale, Nokia will be sold anyhow to MS, but you won't get any dividends".

Of course they all said yes

[AtTheBottomOfTheHilton]

"I will soon release my book on the Elop Effect, it needs to be recorded for history as the biggest management failure of any global market leader in economic history of humankind."

Operational success it is. I've never witnessed such hostile company take over where they have basically been able to dodge all the obstacles along the way like they have. Even for Microsoft I regard this take over as highly improbable. There have been very little anger from share holders despite their losses, there have been no action against this from the Finnish government, the EU regulators have been completely quiet what I know about. You simply cannot do this without the help from much more powerful actors.

This leaves the possibility that a certain people wants only companies that they can control, are making the major operating systems in the world. Therefore they wanted to kill off both Meego and Symbian as they were not under their control.

[zlutor]

@Asko: 27th of November is coming and we will see...

We see how Finnish people votes with their wallet. And then the rest who pre-ordered the device. Maybe we - Jolla fans - will be proven wrong and Baron95 will be proven right about US superiority blabla.

But that can not happen... :-)

[ThisIsBad]

If the objective was to drive Nokia down to get it sold willingly at an affordable price to its real employer, Microsoft (and get a hefty bonus in the process), it's not mismanagement, it's a successful fraud.

And maybe we should not rule out the possibility that Uncle Sam was right behind this strategy. After all, a sole country is now in control of basically every Phone Operating systems. This can't be missed as a strategic advantage.

[Asko]

@Baron95 you have wrong percent number. I think that number was foreign prevoters.

[m]

It's not over yet. It'll never be over until the last secret crime is told. We still have to see what happens to Elop, what Nokia's worth after this is done (and how much money do they owe to Microsoft due to bad commitments?), what other ridiculous things Nokia has agreed to at their expense and Microsoft's benefit, etc. And then, will Microsoft actually ruin the phone division and kill it, or keep trying to suffocate all the remaining small players until there are none?

[cornelius]

God, how I'd love to see another Kin happening at Redmond. Where can we start a petition for Elop for CEO? Elop is definitely the right man. He has the ability to sink the ship faster than anybody else. I mean why go through a long agony when a quick death can reduce the pain significantly?

[Biswarup Ray]

In a recent interview, Jorma Ollila appeared so utterly clueless that is not surprising that Nokia has met this fate, what is surprising is that how Nokia had managed to prosper with him in the CEO position in the first place!

[AndThisWillBeToo]

@Leebase
+1
I doubt Tomi will be able to focus on anything that is not related to Nokia.

[alvi]

Tomi, I think the name 'elop effect' is so strong, you should host this blog under this name (instead of communities dominate). And the domain is still free, I just checked. :)