Courtesy of Benzinga.
Forget the rumors. Ignore the supporters. Come back to Earth and realize that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will never buy Nokia (NYSE: NOK).
Nokia is a dying firm. It may be one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wireless devices, and it may be responsible for shipping almost as many phones as Samsung and Apple. But Nokia continues to lose market share every year. Over the past 18 months, Nokia shares lost more than 80% of their value.
Apple is not the kind of company that likes to buy out its competitors. But even if it did, that would not matter here. With the sole exception of the 808 PureView, which features the most advanced camera of any smartphone, Nokia’s technology is generations behind Apple and Samsung. Why would Apple buy out a competitor that is incapable of competing?
ZDNet recently argued that Apple should buy Nokia to “save on lawyer fees.”
Last year, Apple paid Nokia a large, undisclosed sum of money for infringing on some of its patents. Apple must continue to pay licensing fees to Nokia in order to keep using its technology.
By acquiring Nokia, those fees would go away. Apple could feasibly use Nokia’s patents against Samsung and other competitors, or simply use them to defend against future lawsuits.
But if Apple wants patents, it will not buy a whole company — it will simply buy the patents.
Nokia cannot go on like this forever. Eventually it will have to sell some of its assets. When that day comes, Apple will be waiting.
Google could have taken this approach with Motorola, but it was afraid of losing the assets to another firm. Thus, Google jumped the gun and acquired the entire firm before any other buyer appeared.
This strategy could work for the Mac maker, but that is not how Apple does business. Apple likes to buy companies and technologies that could inspire new products or enhance the firm’s existing lineup. Nokia does neither.
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