Depends on how you look at it. Steve Ballmer seemed committed to Windows Phone much more than Satya Nadella is now, and Nokia had been trying to negotiate the sale for quite a while with no success. Then, after it became clear that Stephen Elop is not capable of running the company properly, we saw a brilliant decision by Nokia (allegedly designed by Finns to push the Microsoft deal) - it started making Android-based devices under the Nokia X brand. This gave a good scare to Ballmer, as losing Nokia practically meant losing all prospects for Windows Phone, and he proceeded with the acquisition. Fortunately or unfortunately, Ballmer's plans for Windows Phone never came to fruition, as Satya Nadella was quick to write down the whole thing in less than a year. Yes, it was loss making, but also, this means that Microsoft has largely given up on phones, and one can argue that it should be there to ensure its relevancy in the future.
Apart from shaking off the Nokia vestiges of the Ballmer era, it seems pretty positive long term. The write-off is a one time thing, next quarter should be pretty good.
They could have done so much with the Nokia resources. They bought the possibly most iconic phone manufacturer in history and let it waste and rot. Literally the dumbest decisions in the tech industry are made by Microsoft. It's a shameful day and age where shitty Chinese OEMs are selling more devices than the company that literally defined personal computing. How horrifying.
The Nokia acquisition seems like a disaster, but the prize for dumbest decisions in the tech industry actually goes to HP: Compaq, Palm, Autonomy to name just a few.
I worked on a project where the Autonomy suite featured heavily. It worked well, had good support and a really good engineering support team. Shame the people at the top overinflated their valuation to hp. It wasn't a bad acquisition, but it was at the price they paid for it.
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p1esk - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Was MS buying Nokia a dumb idea? If yes, how did they justify it at the time?kyuu - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
The 8 billion write-off won't mean much over the long term. Its more important if their new strategy pays off.Tams80 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Well they have a change in CEO and a complete change in strategy. Nadella is really just cleaning up after Ballmer.WorldWithoutMadness - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
We will see if continuum is just typical MS execution or a game changer. I am betting on the previous.victorson - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Depends on how you look at it. Steve Ballmer seemed committed to Windows Phone much more than Satya Nadella is now, and Nokia had been trying to negotiate the sale for quite a while with no success. Then, after it became clear that Stephen Elop is not capable of running the company properly, we saw a brilliant decision by Nokia (allegedly designed by Finns to push the Microsoft deal) - it started making Android-based devices under the Nokia X brand. This gave a good scare to Ballmer, as losing Nokia practically meant losing all prospects for Windows Phone, and he proceeded with the acquisition. Fortunately or unfortunately, Ballmer's plans for Windows Phone never came to fruition, as Satya Nadella was quick to write down the whole thing in less than a year. Yes, it was loss making, but also, this means that Microsoft has largely given up on phones, and one can argue that it should be there to ensure its relevancy in the future.id4andrei - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Better to buy Nokia outright for the brand and supply chain than let it go Android and kill WP with it.BMNify - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
The 8 Billion write down will be nice for tax benefits.Brett Howse - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Not really they still had to pay $1.4 billion.kyuu - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Yeah, but what would their taxes have been without the write off?ppi - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Not sure about US taxes, but generally this kind of write-offs is not tax deductible. Which is why they have to pay some taxes.Gunbuster - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Buy a phone manufacturer and then forget to have a flagship handset in the US for nearly two years. Then wonder why you lost money...Coming Soon™
tipoo - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Apart from shaking off the Nokia vestiges of the Ballmer era, it seems pretty positive long term. The write-off is a one time thing, next quarter should be pretty good.kspirit - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
They could have done so much with the Nokia resources. They bought the possibly most iconic phone manufacturer in history and let it waste and rot. Literally the dumbest decisions in the tech industry are made by Microsoft. It's a shameful day and age where shitty Chinese OEMs are selling more devices than the company that literally defined personal computing. How horrifying.tolgerias - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
The Nokia acquisition seems like a disaster, but the prize for dumbest decisions in the tech industry actually goes to HP: Compaq, Palm, Autonomy to name just a few.erple2 - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
I worked on a project where the Autonomy suite featured heavily. It worked well, had good support and a really good engineering support team. Shame the people at the top overinflated their valuation to hp. It wasn't a bad acquisition, but it was at the price they paid for it.LostPassword - Friday, July 24, 2015 - link
Nokia lumia brand saved Windows phone os. They wouldn't have any decent market share without nokiaLostPassword - Friday, July 24, 2015 - link
What they did to Nokia was a damn shAme tho