Last week"s rumours about Microsoft acquiring Nokia"s phone unit for $19 billion were quickly shot down by Nokia themselves following a flurry of activity from the media. This came after a similar rumour emerged in the middle of May. Today, the latest buzz from the rumour mill presents a new party interested in acquiring Nokia - Samsung, another Windows Phone partner.
According to BusinessInsider, the possibility was raised by Arild Moen of the Wall Street Journal. Speculation of the deal was raised on three factors: the rejection of any talks between Microsoft and Nokia of an acquisition, and the falling Nokia stock, which may be attributed to criticism over Nokia"s change of strategy from developing their software in-house to adopting a new third-party operating system.
The third factor is quite interesting, as Florian Mueller of FOSSpatents points out on Twitter. By acquiring Nokia, Samsung gets a nice portfolio of patents they can use to take on Apple with, given their current dispute in court.
Interestingly enough, neither Nokia nor Samsung are denouncing the rumours, as Nokia did last week with the Microsoft buyout. Spokespersons for both Nokia and Samsung refused to comment on this latest rumour.
Thanks to Mephistopheles for the tip on the forums!