A new report indicates Microsoft considered buying Nokia in late 2011, but eventually walked away from the deal.
According to The Register, a source from Microsoft told the site "Microsoft was given access to Nokia"s books late last year in an attempt to evaluate which parts, if any, were worth acquiring." After Microsoft looked at Nokia"s financial information, the source said, it walked away from the deal. The site also goes on to state that Nokia wasn"t actually interested in selling itself and Microsoft wasn"t interested in buying – at least not at the time.
The company would have to pay a premium for Nokia, which is something Microsoft wasn"t interested in. Instead, The Register says, it would be easier and more cost-effective for Microsoft to simply wait for Nokia to run out of money before buying the company. Nokia"s been struggling financially of late, not shipping as many Lumia smartphones as previously predicted, which resulted in the company"s stock dropping to a 15-year low. The company"s stock has a 52-week high of $7.38 and a low of $2.61, which it hit earlier this month; Nokia"s revenue and operating income were also both down in 2011.
With Microsoft preparing to release Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 later this year, it"s unclear if the company is still considering purchasing Nokia, as many analysts have predicted. Nokia is believed to be running out of its financial reserves, as many analysts have stated the company will run out of money in 2013. In the past five financial quarters, Nokia has used up 2.1 billion Euros; as of last month, the company had 4.9 billion Euros in its reserves.
Via: The Next Web
Source: The Register