Struggling Nokia may sell company headquarters in Finland

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
In yet another sign of how far it has fallen, Nokia is considering selling its corporate headquarters in Espoo, Finland, to cut costs.

The Finnish handset maker is looking to shed "non-core assets" as part of a corporate restructuring, and among those assets are real estate holdings, including its headquarters, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The Espoo headquarters is said to be valued between 200 million and 300 million euros, or $259 million to $388 million U.S.

Nokia announced in June that it would ax 10,000 jobs by the end of 2013 in an effort to cut costs and turn the company around. That helped prompt all three major credit rating agencies to downgrade Nokia to "junk" status.

In July, Nokia closed its last manufacturing plant in Finland as part of its ongoing efforts to cut overhead at the company. The factory in Salo joined facilities in Burnaby, Canada, and Ulm, Germany, on the chopping block.

Nokia
The "Nokia House" headquarters in Epsoo, Finland, via Wikipedia.


Once a market-leader in smartphone sales, Nokia's share has dwindled as Apple's iOS and Google's Android continue to capture a growing share of the global market. Shipments of handsets running Nokia's defunct Symbian operating system dropped some 60 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and overall sales continue to struggle as the company moves to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform.

Nokia hopes it will be able to fight back later this year with new handsets, including the Lumia 920, based on Microsoft's latest Windows Phone 8 platform. This week, Nokia released a new commercial that criticized a lack of color variety with the iPhone 5, which only comes in black and white.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    Yet they have money to spend for silly ad's.
    I guess there is not much hope for the mobile phone branch of the rubber-boot manufacturer.
  • Reply 2 of 32
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    This 45 degree imagery from Google sure is… 


     


    …great. *cough*

  • Reply 3 of 32
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,153member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    This 45 degree imagery from Google sure is… 


     


    …great. *cough*



    I don't understand what you meant. . .

  • Reply 4 of 32
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    As I have previously stated, Apple should offer to purchase Navteq. Such a negotiation could include perpetual, non-exclusive worldwide rights to offer Apple Maps on Nokia products.
  • Reply 5 of 32
    Mark this day: Nokia will be gone in 5 years. It will be bought, dismantled, and the brand will lives on either as part of Microsoft, or bought by a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer.
  • Reply 6 of 32
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post

    I don't understand what you meant. . .


     


    A jab at Google's 45 degree imaging.






    Originally Posted by winstein2010 View Post

    Nokia will be gone in 5 years.


     



    I give it two. RIM'll happen before that.

  • Reply 7 of 32
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,153member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    A jab at Google's 45 degree imaging.


     


    I give it two. RIM'll happen before that.



    Where did you see it, or are you saying there isn't any?


     


    FWIW the Streetview image is here:


    https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=street+view+nokia+headquarters+espoo&fb=1&gl=us&hq=street+view+nokia+headquarters+espoo&cid=0,0,11014744828968295042&ei=-ERsUPW8FKiG2gWD5oCQAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CJYBEPwSMAQ

  • Reply 8 of 32
    Just paint it different colors like yellow and green. That'll fix it.
  • Reply 9 of 32
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post

    Where did you see it, or are you saying there isn't any?


     


    Right, an out of context, irrelevant to the story and even the accuracy of the image itself, jab at Google's 45 degree imaging, based on nothing more than the thought that the image in the article is about a 45 degree angle. image

  • Reply 10 of 32
    What a disgrace!!! This mighty company fell on its knees as soon as they decided to move to Microsoft's shitty Windows platform. Microsoft's trojan horse, Mr. Stephen Elop, despite being known as the worlds worst CEO to ever live on this planet continues to run this company even further into the ground. This worst CEO ever made decisions that broke all prior records on how to destroy a company and now holds the WORLD RECORD IN MARKET SHARE DESTRUCTION.

    FIRE THE CEO, FIRE ALL BOARD MEMBERS WHO APPROVED HIS DECISIONS AND TERMINATE THE MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! OTHERWISE DIE!!!!!!!

  • Reply 11 of 32
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    Just paint it different colors like yellow and green. That'll fix it.


     


    The ONLY color Nokia is seeing is Red, as in on the company balance sheet... 


    /


    /

  • Reply 12 of 32
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member


    Well... they can always go back to making boots.

  • Reply 13 of 32
    jnjnjnjnjnjn Posts: 588member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lav1daloca View Post



    What a disgrace!!! This mighty company fell on its knees as soon as they decided to move to Microsoft's shitty Windows platform. Microsoft's trojan horse, Mr. Stephen Elop, despite being known as the worlds worst CEO to ever live on this planet continues to run this company even further into the ground. This worst CEO ever made decisions that broke all prior records on how to destroy a company and now holds the WORLD RECORD IN MARKET SHARE DESTRUCTION.

    FIRE THE CEO, FIRE ALL BOARD MEMBERS WHO APPROVED HIS DECISIONS AND TERMINATE THE MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! OTHERWISE DIE!!!!!!!


     


    If it wasn't so sad and true, I would have laughed my head off.


     


    J.

  • Reply 14 of 32
    Unless Nokia has some patents of value, Nokia has nothing which an Apple or Msft or Chinese company would want to buy. Like all companies, The Nokia business became nothing more than the administrative side -- the managers, financial advisers, the lawyers, the CEO and his friends. The substance of the company no longer exists.
  • Reply 15 of 32
    It's tough for companies like Nokia (and RIM) to compete against the likes of Apple when they lack the "think different" mentality that is required to push forward with new products that consumers want. Google and their Android partners have been more successful because much of what they started with was driven by Apple's original design.

    The partnership with Microsoft was a differentiation point (away from both Apple and the ever increasing Android driven market) and one that brought in much needed cash (it's generally not good when your short-term needs drive your long-term plans), but it is what it is at this point.

    I'm no financial analyst and I may not be of the caliber of a great ceo, but I am not seeing a bright future for Nokia at this point.
  • Reply 16 of 32

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by NasserAE View Post


    Well... they can always go back to making boots.



    That's certainly what they are doing best! LOL

  • Reply 17 of 32


    How viable of a strategy could that actually be?  They would still have to maintain some sort of HQ somewhere.  And is there really that much of a market for a 200-300 Euro building?  A buyer might have to spend millions building-out what's there in order to suit its needs.  And the buyer would definitely be in the driver's seat in those negotiations since Nokia is on the ropes.


     


    Really, these are Nokia's options:



    1. Bet the whole company on some dramatic reinvention of itself--nobody seems to have a strategy for that.


    2. Realize/Admit they are doomed and begin to shut-down/part-out the company--may not be much of an option when BOD and shareholders are involved.


    3. Die a slow, painful death--appears to be the option the have chosen.

  • Reply 18 of 32
    shompashompa Posts: 343member
    How can Elop still be employed by Nokia? He is (allegedly) clinical insane.

    Nokia. Nr1 phone company in the world. Great pipeline of MeeGo products. Nokia could produce 50 dollar phones and make profit on them. World largest smartphone seller.
    Enter Elop.

    He killed of sales/symbian by making it obsolete over a year before replacement products where ready. MSFT pays a fee to Nokia. Nokia gladly hands over all patents maps that MSFT uses i Windows 8. Elop closes all Nokia factories and outsource production to Taiwan. Later Elop starts to build new billion dollar factories in Vietnam.
    Finally Nokia releases Lumia phones and sells in year fewer Lumia then Apple sold iPhone5 in 3 days.
    Then MSFT announce that they are so incompetent that they wont support OS 7.0/8 and makes all sold Windows Phones obsolete. Again.

    He hade done every single "mistake" that is possible. He is a manchurian candidate from MSFT or totally incompetent.

    Using Windows phone is insane since MSFT control the hardware. That is why there is no pureview phone available on Windows Phone. An Android phone with pureview would be a killer product and sell a ton. (at least license the technology to Apple so we don't have purple pictures)

    Nokia was 3-5% of Finland's BNP. Hundred thousands of people who have lost their lives savings in Nokia shares. I am amazed that Elop have not been apprehended by Finland military and charged with treason.

    Nokia is Ballmer at his best. This is what Ballmer knows how to do.

    When they now close the Nokia factories in Finland: its all over.

    Exactly the same happened to Ericsson. MSFT Rolf Skoglund was hired. Share price fell from over 250SEK to 3 SEK. From top 3 phone company in the world to gone. 50000 jobs gone in Sweden. All thanks to Microsoft and their insane belief that you can use Clippy and design phones in Excel.

    I pray every day for Android on PC. Steam support. Dell/HP/AMD/NVIDIA alliance to replace Windows. Finally the world could be better.
    Apple should spend all its money and buy MSFT and just close it down.
  • Reply 19 of 32
    ojalaojala Posts: 18member
    It's actually a surprise that Nokia still owns their HQ. Perhaps the pre-Elop leadership was afraid of doing so earlier.

    A lot of finnish companies rent their HQ's and offices and the real estate has been sold to someone with deep pockets, e.g. the insurance and pension funds. It gives the company flexibility to move around and the competition keep the rents reasonable.

    It's the same with all the finnish forestry giants and e.g. Nokia's neighbouring Kone.
  • Reply 20 of 32
    galbigalbi Posts: 968member


    Can anyone with an iPhone 5 tell me where the Nokia headquarter is?

     

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