Microsoft Writes Off Nokia Acquisition

Nothing is more perilous than making a prediction about the future. Consider this forecast of mobile device operating system market share, made in 2011.

By now, four years later, Windows Phone was supposed to have caught or surpassed Android.

Instead, in January 2015 Windows Phone had 2.26 percent of the installed base globally.

Android was still number one with a share of 59.78 percent.

And now Microsoft has announced the reduction of up to 7,800 positions, primarily in the phone business.

Microsoft also will record an impairment charge of approximately $7.6 billion related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services (NDS) business in addition to a restructuring charge of approximately $750 million to $850 million.

In other words, Microsoft is completely writing off its acquisition of the Nokia

devices business.

Precisely how Microsoft views mobile devices is open to some interpretation. But one view is that Microsoft will henceforth not be a major contestant either in devices or mobile operating systems.

source: Global Nerdy