Moody's downgrades Nokia to near-junk status

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/16/moodys_downgrade_nokia_junk/

by chrisaycock • 14 years ago

58 41 14 years ago

theregister.co.uk

DanBC• 14 years ago

Source article (http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-downgrades-Nokia-to-Ba...)

I think that Microsoft will probably end up buying Nokia outright at some point if this slide continues, especially if Google gets serious about making it's own hardware via it's Motorola Mobility acquisition.

dirkdk• 14 years ago

No, my money is on Microsoft buying RIM/Blackberry. Those guys are gone in 3 months. After that acquisition Nokia will not be possible anymore because of anti-competition regulations.

rbanffy8• 14 years ago

In the end, it will come down to which patents are more useful for Microsoft to help slow Android and Linux down. The one with the nastiest stuff will win.

rbanffy8• 14 years ago

I think this was the plan from the start and I said so from the moment Elop was hired.

note: the downvotes are so predictable on threads like this...

cooldeal• 14 years ago

>I think this was the plan from the start and I said so from the moment Elop was hired

Who's plan? Care to elaborate?

mason55• 14 years ago

There are already rumblings of Google selling off the Mobility hardware

fjarlq• 14 years ago

There are also rumblings that those rumblings are nothing more than rumblings...

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120413PD205.html

cowkingdeluxe• 14 years ago

Why should any credence be given to Moody's when they were the same group of people who were rating subprime mortgages as AAA. In my mind, they lost their credibility as a ratings agency.

rollypolly• 14 years ago

You're right, it's also like kicking Nokia while it's down. It's really sad.

rbanffy8• 14 years ago

Remember Nokia did it to itself. They could fix MeeGo, they could have gone with Android and, instead, they bet their future on an OS that had shown very little hope of growth. They could also have left the smartphone market and focused on high-function S40 dumbphones and base a way up from there.

ticks• 14 years ago

Whenever I look at a story about Moody's, S&P and so on, there's almost always two types of comments: people who are threatened by their decisions (and discredit them) and people who feel vindicated (and think the decision is great). I don't know what to believe, but I would hope that these entities are less subordinate these days.

jordanb• 14 years ago

For me, I think the ratings agencies are useless because most of their ratings are stating the obvious after the fact. What use would a weather man be who tells you that it rained yesterday, but that the weather conditions tomorrow are still under review at the present time.

taligent2• 14 years ago

Which is why they have done a 180 are now being extra cautious.

And in doing so causing just as many problems as before. They really deserve a lot more hatred and derision then they are getting.

guelo• 14 years ago

FTFA: "You could argue that Moody's was one of the ratings agencies that consistently passed off sub-prime debt as investment grade material in the noughties and that it may well be wrong – indeed, Nokia's share price rose slightly on Monday. But more than a few analysts are now seriously concerned about Nokia's future, with the company losing both staff and customers, and in an alliance with Microsoft to push an unpopular mobile operating system."

r00fus• 14 years ago

Moody's along with S&P and the other ratings scam-artists are, in this case, just adding formality to what was already known - Nokia had a big red target painted on it as soon as Android gained any popularity.

What's surprising is the complete and utter inability for Nokia to respond. The death knell, at least for me, was hearing Elop set fire to the existing Symbian property and supply lines... equivalent to detonating your own ammo/fuel dump while being sieged - lots of flash and bang, but no future.

web_chops• 14 years ago

I think the mobile landscape is going to look pretty barren in a few more years. Just like the desktops, we seem to near the consolidation of mobile OS market with weaker sides getting eliminated rapidly.

peterwwillis• 14 years ago

So should this stop someone from taking a job at Nokia?

chrisaycock• 14 years ago

A credit rating is a likelihood of default. In other words, Moody's believes that Nokia has a non-negligible chance of declaring bankruptcy. These ratings are intended for investors.

Moody's isn't passing judgement on Nokia as an employer, though you may take into consideration the probability of getting laid-off in the next 12 months.

jagjit• 14 years ago

This downgrade is just based on Nokia's current performance which is going to continue to be bad for a couple of quarters.

But their balance sheet is solid and looks like the Nokia Lumia 900 phones are getting very good reviews and selling well: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Cell-Phones-Accessories-S...

I played with my wife's lumia 710 and it beats iphone in ease of use. If these phones sell well, which they seem to be doing, developers and apps will come too.

gjulianm• 14 years ago

Totally agree. Way too much people thinks changes happen instantly. Nokia did not adapt to the iPhone-Android boom, and it's paying it now. Any movement they do now will be reflected in performance in the next quarters, as that lack of adaptation is reflecting now in their performance.

I think Nokia will improve significantly in terms of revenue. The new Lumias are pretty good and are selling really well. Also, don't forget that behind this stands Microsoft, which still has an enormous dominance in the enterprise business, and who could push Windows Phone as the perfect complement for all the enterprise software it is already selling (Office, Outlook, Exchange, Lync, Windows, Windows Server...)

alsocasey• 14 years ago

I have a 710 and for 250$ (in Canada, off contract) it's an outstanding performer.

polynomial• 14 years ago

1. Never fight a land war in Asia.

2. Never enter into a mobile partnership with Microsoft.

http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/11/in-memoriam-microsofts-prev...

Zhenya• 14 years ago

3. Never invade Russia in the winter?

loverobots• 14 years ago

Moody's is a joke. When they screw up they claim "free speech" so they can away with it.

How's the phone for those HN-ers that have it? That is the only thing that matters. Uncle Ballmer is loaded, he can bankroll this thing for quite a while, make no mistake about it. 1 Million phones X $100 price drop = $100 million, or almost chump change for http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT+Key+Statistics . Microsoft can take a special charge of $1 billion for a year or two to bail Nokia out or to lower the price so people are enticed. Will the investors say anything when you are minting over $20 Billion a year? I doubt it.

Declare Microsoft dead at your own peril. The world is moving to doing a lot of stuff in their phones and Microsoft is not about to roll over in their turf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile

stewie2• 14 years ago

RIM should be junkier

Moody's downgrades Nokia to near-junk status

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