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> And hasn't Microsoft already done the same to a large number of startups? Not just startups. They tried to acquire Nokia's handset business and initially fai

by sho_hn 6y ago

> And hasn't Microsoft already done the same to a large number of startups? Not just startups. They tried to acquire Nokia's handset business and initially failed. Stephen Elop (ex-MS) was installed as new CEO via investor pressure, Nokia abandoned their promising Linux-based phones and changed direction to Windows Mobile and then it was acquired after all. And failed. Elop has, of course, denied having been a trojan horse for Microsoft at Nokia after the initial failed acquisiton attempt. Nokia's share price and profit lowered considerably during his tenure as a CEO, making it much cheaper to acquire. Resisting acquisition can be very challenging, and takes a lot of energy and time.

908B64B197 6y ago
> Nokia abandoned their promising Linux-based phones "Promising" is an interesting choice of words here.
- sho_hn 6y ago
  The Nokia N9 was very well-received. If you need lots of glowing citations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N9#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N9#Reception If anything, "promising" may be the wrong choice of words because it was arguably better and more mature than the equivalent debut iOS and webOS devices at launch. Of course that's cheating a bit, as the tech stack had some history behind it by that point. Still, for a line-incepting product it was very impressive execution, especially for a company that was still so hung up on a legacy product line at the same time (Symbian). Personally, I used one as well and I don't find it very hard to imagine a version of the world where it could still be my preferred OS/ecosystem right now. It was truly a strange situation, and Nokia of the day one strange animal of a dissonant company. I don't know if Nokia would have made it without the MS interference -- but I think it didn't help. This is a nice little nostalgia anecdote too that gets discussed on HN occasionally: http://nition.momentstudio.co.nz/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-clock/ http://nition.momentstudio.co.nz/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-...
sliken 6y ago
Yes, it pretty much went that way, but Elop seems dead set on killing off nokia so Microsoft could buy it for pennies on the dollar. First it was the "we are on a burning platform letter", then abandoned all their current customers, moved everything to windows mobile, then months later switched to a new version of the microsoft mobile with no upgrade path for the users who just bought new windows mobile phones. The market at that point pretty much decided to skip that mess and go with IOS or Android.
ablekh 6y ago
> Resisting acquisition can be very challenging, and takes a lot of energy and time. Not at all. You just have to be a company that is a) private, b) not funded by VC, and c) profitable enough. Then all you have to do is just politely reject all incoming requests (e.g., "sorry, we are not interested [at this time]"). :-)

by sho_hn 6y ago

908B64B197 6y ago

> Nokia abandoned their promising Linux-based phones "Promising" is an interesting choice of words here.

sho_hn 6y ago
The Nokia N9 was very well-received. If you need lots of glowing citations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N9#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N9#Reception If anything, "promising" may be the wrong choice of words because it was arguably better and more mature than the equivalent debut iOS and webOS devices at launch. Of course that's cheating a bit, as the tech stack had some history behind it by that point. Still, for a line-incepting product it was very impressive execution, especially for a company that was still so hung up on a legacy product line at the same time (Symbian). Personally, I used one as well and I don't find it very hard to imagine a version of the world where it could still be my preferred OS/ecosystem right now. It was truly a strange situation, and Nokia of the day one strange animal of a dissonant company. I don't know if Nokia would have made it without the MS interference -- but I think it didn't help. This is a nice little nostalgia anecdote too that gets discussed on HN occasionally: http://nition.momentstudio.co.nz/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-clock/ http://nition.momentstudio.co.nz/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-...

sliken 6y ago

Yes, it pretty much went that way, but Elop seems dead set on killing off nokia so Microsoft could buy it for pennies on the dollar. First it was the "we are on a burning platform letter", then abandoned all their current customers, moved everything to windows mobile, then months later switched to a new version of the microsoft mobile with no upgrade path for the users who just bought new windows mobile phones. The market at that point pretty much decided to skip that mess and go with IOS or Android.

ablekh 6y ago

> Resisting acquisition can be very challenging, and takes a lot of energy and time. Not at all. You just have to be a company that is a) private, b) not funded by VC, and c) profitable enough. Then all you have to do is just politely reject all incoming requests (e.g., "sorry, we are not interested [at this time]"). :-)