A new phone-like device from Redmond? Why, Microsoft, why?
Five years ago, in September 2013, Microsoft made one of the most ill-conceived acquisitions in tech history, purchasing Nokia for $7.9 billion. Having failed in all its earlier attempts to bolster its failing Windows Phone line, Microsoft decided it would buy its way into mobile success by acquiring what had once been the world’s dominant mobile phone maker.
Key words: “once been.” By the time of the acquisition, Nokia, like Microsoft itself, was being brutalized in the smartphone market by the iPhone and Android. Microsoft ended up writing off the Nokia deal in 2015, laying off thousands of people.