Nokia used to be the dominant handset maker in the mobile space but over the years, Nokia has fallen behind thanks to rivals Apple and its iPhone, and of course Android smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy range, but Nokia has pinned their hopes on regaining their former glory on Windows Phone devices, but it would appear Nokia is still suffering, in as much as they are contemplating shedding their luxury devices brand, Vertu.
According to the guys over at Cnet, by way of the Financial Times (subscription required), apparently the word is Nokia is in negotiations with Permira to offload the United Kingdom based Nokia subsidiary Vertu for approximately 200 million quid, roughly 265 million bucks, and reportedly advising on the sale of Vertu is Goldman Sachs.
Word is on Friday, Standard & Poor’s followed a similar move by Fitch Ratings, and cut Nokia’s rating to ‘junk’, with the weaker rating reflecting a lower estimate for Nokia handset division sales this year with a revised forecast on cash flow and profits.
As we previously reported Nokia saw bad Q1 results, with Nokia reporting a Q1 loss of $1.76 billion due to their Symbian based smartphones continually shedding market share.
Nokia of course has been relying on the uptake of their new Windows Phone devices such as the Nokia Lumia 800, but thus far the Windows Phone handsets have yet to take off on a worldwide scale, so perhaps old Nokia has made a mistake in opting to go with Windows Phone rather than Android, especially now that they are contemplating dumping Vertu…Will Nokia ever be able to make it back to their former standing in the mobile space…what do our readers think?