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Is Samsung about to buy Nokia? That’s the latest rumour doing the rounds. The Korean company is flying high at the moment, while the Finnish phone maker continues to struggle.
But hang on. Just because Samsung could, doesn’t mean it should. Plenty of industry insiders have poured scorn on the idea. And we’ve been here before: the same rumour surfaced exactly a year ago. So where does that leave us?
The rumour comes from the Finnish media (via Intomobile), and has seen Nokia’s share shoot up. But some doubt that there’s any truth in it. Despite Nokia’s recent woes, it is still the second largest vendor of mobiles (next to Samsung). Absorb it into Samsung, and you’d have a force to be reckoned with. Or would you?
The logistics of integrating the two could be so nightmarish as to render the whole thing pointless. “Samsung is flying at the moment and it is hard to see what it would gain from buying Nokia,” Ovum analyst Nick Dillon told Reuters. “Any benefit it would gain from Nokia’s patent portfolio or manufacturing facilities would likely be outweighed by the complexities of integrating the two companies.” Microsoft is being touted as a more likely candidate to buy Nokia, seeing as the two are already in bed with the Lumia Windows Phone hook-up.
Being a longtime player in the mobile biz means Nokia does have a stack of patents that could prove invaluable, especially considering the number of patent infringement court cases happening of late. Motorola had a similarly valuable patent catalogue, and we all know what happened there.
Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight told Reuters: “I can’t think of a rational reason why Samsung would want to buy Nokia at present.”
I think this one will pass without much incident to be honest, but then you never know in this game.
Should Samsung buy Nokia? Or do you think Microsoft will snap it up? Let me know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.
