Samsung says a deal to buy Nokia (NOK) is not in the works, flatly denying the takeover talk that boosted Nokia’s stock late last week. Nokia was the life of the party in European trading last Friday, but today shares slipped despite a broad rally in Europe. Europe’s FTSEurofirst 300 hit a 4-week high on news of a bailout for Spain’s troubled banks, but Nokia shares closed lower.
Nokia’s stock has lost almost half its value during the last 3 months, as Samsung has replaced the Finnish conglomerate as the world’s leading seller of mobile phones. Nokia lost $1.2 billion in the first quarter, as net device sales fell 40% from the year-ago quarter to $5.5 billion. In late April Fitch Ratings downgraded Nokia’s debt to “junk” status with a negative long-term outlook.
Nokia got a bit of encouraging news last week when research firm IDC predicted that smartphones running the Microsoft Windows operating system will outsell those running Apple’s iOS by 2016. Nokia is the flagship manufacturer of Windows phones and some industry observers think the software giant will make sure that Nokia stays in business.
Disclosure: The author owns shares of Nokia.
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