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Microsoft to acquire Nokia

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121–130 of 156 posts

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#121

"Microsoft will draw upon its overseas cash resources to fund the transaction." This is an important aspect of the deal - bringing money earned overseas into the US is often costly (taxes, etc.). As a result, US companies often end up with cash sitting overseas with nothing to spend it on, and are hesitant to take the hit that happens when they bring it to the US... so this is a great way for Microsoft to use that mo…

Microsoft also used offshore money to buy Skype.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what happens to the rest of Nokia? Nokia keeps the other two divisions. Nokia is now primarily a telecoms infrastructure company, like Alcatel-Lucent. They're pretty closely matched. Alcatel-Lucent had €14.4 billion of revenues in 2012, while Nokia Siemens Networks took in €13.1 billion of revenues. There's also the mapping division, but that's just 10% of the new Nokia's revenues. I'm surprised Microsoft did no…

> Nokia Siemens Networks NSN is no longer Nokia Siemens Networks; it's Nokia Solutions and Networks now, and Siemens is no longer part of it.

The deal closed in August 2013. It would have been inaccurate to refer to it as Nokia Solutions and Networks when giving 2012 results.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

13 years ago was the dot-com bubble. What about Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Intel, Oracle?

IBM doesn't count because that company is almost as old as the invention of the computer itself.

IBM is actually older than the computer, it was founded in 1911. (Unless you count Babbage's machine.)

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that Microsoft is buying Nokia, it seems unlikely that Microsoft will buy Blackberry. Unless it's a firesale for the patents. Note: RIM changed its name to Blackberry Ltd, with a stock ticker of BBRY.

I'd say Blackberry is the big loser in this deal, since it probably takes one of their more plausible options off the table.

RIM's two selling points still seem as relevant as they did last week for MS: patents and the loyal but shrinking customer base.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#126
post #94
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs like $19 to register an account on the WP dev centre (or free if you are a student), that's less than Apple and Google charge. For that you get Visual Studio and Blend all set up to develop with and can publish apps to the store.

less than Apple and Google charge What your parent wants to do, "build an app to use on my own phone", is free on Android.

It's free to build an app and deploy it on your own Windows Phone(s) too - you only have to pay if you want to distribute it through the Windows Store.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#127
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say Blackberry is the big loser in this deal, since it probably takes one of their more plausible options off the table.

RIM's two selling points still seem as relevant as they did last week for MS: patents and the loyal but shrinking customer base.

How loyal would the customer base be if Blackberry switched to Windows Phone? Would they be any more loyal than Symbian users when Nokia did the transition?

This is why I mention only the patents. Those are clearly valuable. The customer base is debatable.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#128

"Microsoft will draw upon its overseas cash resources to fund the transaction." This is an important aspect of the deal - bringing money earned overseas into the US is often costly (taxes, etc.). As a result, US companies often end up with cash sitting overseas with nothing to spend it on, and are hesitant to take the hit that happens when they bring it to the US... so this is a great way for Microsoft to use that mo…

Key graff: "The average tax rate these companies currently pay to other countries on this income is just 6.9 percent, well below lower the 35 percent statutory U.S. corporate tax rate."

As I recall we (the US) have the highest corporate income taxes in the developed world. It would be a gross dereliction of management's duty to shareholders to repatriate it unless really needed.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#129

I hope Ballmer and Gates have a dedicated CEO in mind now that Ballmer's leaving... very few people will be able to lead a company this large, and it will be quite a tragedy if Microsoft's reputation declines and takes down Nokia with it.

I heard a rumor that Paul Graham is being courted, but it is probably disinformation.

I would be very surprised if either party was interested in PG being CEO of Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft to acquire Nokia

#130
post #128

"Microsoft will draw upon its overseas cash resources to fund the transaction." This is an important aspect of the deal - bringing money earned overseas into the US is often costly (taxes, etc.). As a result, US companies often end up with cash sitting overseas with nothing to spend it on, and are hesitant to take the hit that happens when they bring it to the US... so this is a great way for Microsoft to use that mo…

Key graff: " The average tax rate these companies currently pay to other countries on this income is just 6.9 percent, well below lower the 35 percent statutory U.S. corporate tax rate. " As I recall we (the US) have the highest corporate income taxes in the developed world. It would be a gross dereliction of management's duty to shareholders to repatriate it unless really needed.

No corporation pays 35%. There are far too many loop holes. The US has the highest rates ON THE BOOKS if you take ZERO deductions and write-offs.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/01/1804801/no-ameri...

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