“Proudly remember the first time my dad gifted me a Nokia 3310…truly the end of an era,” 27-year-old advertising entrepreneur Mahendra Wadkar posted on Facebook.
Cyberspace was agog with remarks and reflective comments following Microsoft’s announcement to acquire Finnish handset giant Nokia for $7.2 billion. Netizens expressed their views on everything from Nokia’s future name and the role played by its senior management (in shaping the deal) to the potential impact of this transaction on competitors.
“For a lot of us Finns, including myself, Nokia phones are part of what we grew up with. Many first reactions to the deal will be emotional,” said Alexander Stubb, Finland’s Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, on his Twitter account.
‘RIP Nokia’, ‘Nokia no more’ and ‘Nokia legacy’ were some of the widely used phrases by the Internet-savvy population, going by postings on social networking sites and blogs.
Many seem to have missed the fact that Microsoft has agreed to a 10-year licence arrangement to use the Nokia brand on current mobile phones. In other words, Nokia will continue to own and maintain its brand, at least in the foreseeable future.
Nokia has been in talks with Microsoft since June last year for a potential deal, but the talks failed. The current arrangement builds on an existing relationship between the two companies after Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (an ex-Microsoft executive) took a controversial decision in 2011 to use his former firm’s Windows Phone for smartphones rather than Nokia's proprietary software or Google's Android operating system. Elop is now going back to Microsoft’s fold as part of the deal and is being seen as a strong contender to become CEO after incumbent Steve Ballmer retires.
Elop was the butt of several jokes on social networking sites and mobile messaging platforms such as Whatsapp and Wechat. “@nokia marketcap when @elop takes over: $37 billion. Marketcap when he takes Nokia back to M$: $7billion. Well done!,” Mahesh Murthy, founder of Pinstorm, posted on Twitter. On Tuesday, ‘Stephen Elop’ was among the trending topics on Twitter, ahead of ‘Nokia’, ‘Microsoft’ and ‘Ballmer’. With Microsoft now owning Nokia, there could be a shake-up in the enterprise telephony space, a market traditionally dominated by Blackberry, analysts say. The Canadian smartphone maker has been exploring options that include ‘joint ventures, strategic partnerships, a sale of the company or other possible transactions’ as it strives to regain market share.
“Blackberry was taking about finding a niche user base in enterprise in order to survive. Guess that idea is out with the Nokia acquisition,” Philippos Savvides said on his Twitter account. A Kolkata-based Twitter user who goes by the handle ‘heynownow’, said: “Now that Microsoft has borged Nokia, wonder if Uncle Larry (Oracle) is itching his sweaty palms in a bid to acquire Blackberry.” After the acquisition by Microsoft, Nokia could get a new brand identity. Netizens are divided on whether it should be Microkia, Mokia or MS Nokia.