Should Apple buy Nokia?

[cpvr]

There's an interesting article going about that Apple should buy Nokia.

Here are some claims about this:

• Apple needs more patents to cover its wireless roadmap for the next decade and keep Samsung at bay. Nokia has one of the best and youngest sets of patents around LTE and other 4G wireless technologies. Apple settled out-of-court with Nokia in 2011, a deal Louis hears brought Nokia $500 million and a royalty in the range of $5 to $7 per iPhone, a 1% tax by the Finnish company. The patent portfolio is worth anywhere from $6 billion to $10 billion. Nokia’s market cap today is $10 billion.
• Maps. Apple is way behind here and Nokia has some of the best location software and databases in the industry from its 2007 Navteq deal. Why build when you can buy a distressed Nokia for about the same price ($8 billion) that Nokia (over)paid for Navteq? Companies such as Google, RIM, Microsoft, Amazon and Samsung all depend in some way on Navteq maps, giving Apple new leverage over those other companies.
• Wireless TV. Nokia has good technology for delivering live TV to wireless devices, and TV is an area everyone is betting Apple moves into.
• Knock Microsoft on its heels. Nokia is one of Microsoft’s bigger, if not the biggest, partners for Windows Phone, especially at the high-end with the new Nokia Lumia handsets. Assuming there wouldn’t be any antitrust claims leveled by Microsoft (and wouldn’t that be ironic) Apple could squelch whatever progress Microsoft has struggled to secure in mobile.
• Apple would do a deal as a double-reverse with a flip. It can buy the patents and some software engineering (more like what Google did with Motorola) and flip the rest to a telecom equipment maker such as Alcatel-Lucent (likeliest) or Siemens, Nokia’s current wireless-equipment JV partner.

• [*]Louis ends with how the deal might play out:
  

  With a market cap of $10 billion for Nokia and Apple sitting on a cash pile of over $100 billion, the Cupertino giant could fund this from change it found in its couch. For the reasons listed above, I suspect that Google and Microsoft would also jump into the game, bidding Nokia’s share price further up. But few companies have the buying power Apple has and it would eventually win that fight and, once again, reorder the mobile landscape while solidifying its own control of the future.​

  
  Read more about why Apple should buy Nokia here -
  http://www.tnl.net/blog/2012/10/06/why-apple-should-acquire-nokia/​
  What does everyone think? Do you think Apple should buy Nokia, or should Samsung, Google and/or Microsoft do it? Do you think this would be a good deal for Apple? ​

 

[Carlos]

Nokia does create some of the most innovative looking phones on the market, which aligns with Apple's own "innovative" take on the culture. Two and two together, you have a pretty killer company.

 

[Micah Zen]

There's an interesting article going about that Apple should buy Nokia.

Here are some claims about this:

• 
  Read more about why Apple should buy Nokia here -
  http://www.tnl.net/blog/2012/10/06/why-apple-should-acquire-nokia/​
  What does everyone think? Do you think Apple should buy Nokia, or should Samsung, Google and/or Microsoft do it? Do you think this would be a good deal for Apple? ​

Nokia does create some of the most innovative looking phones on the market, which aligns with Apple's own "innovative" take on the culture. Two and two together, you have a pretty killer company.

Microsoft will never let that happen. I seriously can't see them putting up a fight.

If Apple brought Nokia, I'd literally be pissed.
*shudders*
This is just a farfetched idea as far as I am concerned.

 

[Carlos]

Microsoft will never let that happen. I seriously can't see them putting up a fight.

If Apple brought Nokia, I'd literally be pissed.
*shudders*
This is just a farfetched idea as far as I am concerned.

Apple and Microsoft are already competing against each other, sooooo.... This would just push the envelope! :D

 

[Micah Zen]

Apple and Microsoft are already competing against each other, sooooo.... This would just push the envelope! :D

I wouldn't say they are directly competing. They are but Apple is more worried about android/samsung/htc vs Windows phone and their Oems.

It's already been rumored, however, that should Nokia's Lumia line for Windows phone 8 not sell enough to gain them marketshare, that Microsoft would eventually swoop in and buy them.

I just can't imagine Apple buying nokia especially given how invested they are in the Microsoft ecosystem now or as i stated above, I can't see Microsoft lettign them slip away easily.

 

[Carlos]

Apple's not really worried about Google/Samsung with regards to Android, they may have millions in the same league as Microsoft/Apple... but neither Google/Samsung can compete directly against the iphone brand. Surely, iphone 5's quality died off, and more, more, and more people are singing negativity of the latest release. Its one of those cases of two steps forward, one step backward. So, this provides an opportunity for Google/Samsung, and Microsoft to start taking steps to overtake the iphone market.

 

[cpvr]

I wouldn't say they are directly competing. They are but Apple is more worried about android/samsung/htc vs Windows phone and their Oems.

It's already been rumored, however, that should Nokia's Lumia line for Windows phone 8 not sell enough to gain them marketshare, that Microsoft would eventually swoop in and buy them.

I just can't imagine Apple buying nokia especially given how invested they are in the Microsoft ecosystem now or as i stated above, I can't see Microsoft lettign them slip away easily.

Apple is really only worried about Samsung because you seem them both hitting up the court systems. Google and Apple are in talks to license one another's patents, so I've heard on other websites. Google and Apple are two big of companies to just out right war with one another, it would be nice. Android and iOS have been compared to one another by another. Even Android phones are selling pretty decently. Microsoft isn't really selling that much compared to Samsung, Nokia, and Apple.

I agree, Apple and Nokia would create a massive company and it would be hard to compete against them. Heck, even right now the iPhone 5 has the fastest processor on the market, so other companies have to play catch up now. I don't think it will be too long until a faster phone comes out and has better specs than the iPhone 5, that would just make Apple work harder for the iPhone 6. All these companies are fighting for market share and it will be like this for a while because the smart phone market is so huge.