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GREAT-Terry
I bet Nokia is counting down! .... maybe its time to buy a Nokia phone and keep ...
Neo1
This is one temp way to make the quarterly balance sheet look good. Apart from ...
Nokia selling headquarters for $223 million
Dylan McGrath
12/5/2012 12:41 AM EST
SAN FRANCISCO— Finnish mobile phone vendor Nokia Corp. said Tuesday (Dec. 4) it plans to sell its headquarters in Espoo, Finland, to a real estate investment firm for 170 million euro (about $223 million).
Nokia said it plans to lease the office building from the real estate investment firm, Finland-based Exilion Capital Ltd., on a long-term basis. Nokia said it expects to complete the sale by the end of 2012.
"We had a comprehensive sales process with both Finnish and foreign investors and we are very pleased with this outcome," said Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia's chief financial officer. "As we have said before, owning real estate is not part of Nokia's core business and when good opportunities arise we are willing to exit these types of non-core assets."
Last week, chip vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced its intention to sell its main campus in Austin, Texas, and lease the facility back from the buyer on a long-term basis.
Nokia's headquarters, known as Nokia House. The building was designed by architect Pekka Helin.
Nokia has operated in its current headquarters since 1997. The space is about 157,000 square feet.
In a separate statement, Exilion said the deal nearly doubles its property portfolio value. "We are proud of this new partnership with Nokia," Exilion said.
Nokia, which for years was the world's largest handset maker, has struggled in recent quarters as competitors like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Apple Inc. reap higher profit margins from the red hot smartphone segment. In the third quarter, Nokia ranked No. 2 overall in handset market share and seventh in smartphones, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.
Nokia said it plans to lease the office building from the real estate investment firm, Finland-based Exilion Capital Ltd., on a long-term basis. Nokia said it expects to complete the sale by the end of 2012.
"We had a comprehensive sales process with both Finnish and foreign investors and we are very pleased with this outcome," said Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia's chief financial officer. "As we have said before, owning real estate is not part of Nokia's core business and when good opportunities arise we are willing to exit these types of non-core assets."
Last week, chip vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced its intention to sell its main campus in Austin, Texas, and lease the facility back from the buyer on a long-term basis.
Nokia's headquarters, known as Nokia House. The building was designed by architect Pekka Helin.
Nokia has operated in its current headquarters since 1997. The space is about 157,000 square feet.
In a separate statement, Exilion said the deal nearly doubles its property portfolio value. "We are proud of this new partnership with Nokia," Exilion said.
Nokia, which for years was the world's largest handset maker, has struggled in recent quarters as competitors like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Apple Inc. reap higher profit margins from the red hot smartphone segment. In the third quarter, Nokia ranked No. 2 overall in handset market share and seventh in smartphones, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.
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HS_SemiPro
12/5/2012 1:04 AM EST
I Love Nokia phones, they were great to talk on,
Now I have smartphones that can do everything but make a good phone call.
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SylvieBarak
12/5/2012 1:16 AM EST
$223 million? Sounds like the yearly dollar amount of market share Nokia has left....
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tpfj
12/5/2012 9:20 AM EST
Oh how the mighty fall! Everything including the kitchen sink it seems. I agree with HS_SemiPro. VoLTE (or not as the case may be) is the crowning example of just how far the industry has gone away from the telephone.
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rick.merritt
12/5/2012 10:47 AM EST
My first cellphone was the popular Nokia candy bar model. Its tiny screen now feels like a throwback more ancient than vinyl records.
I graduated to a Blackberry, then an iPhone. Lumia? I think not.
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iniewski
12/5/2012 2:05 PM EST
Big corporations sell their building in bad times always arguing that they are not in the real-estate business...didn't they realize that when they were buying these buildings in the first place?...and why sell the only profitable part of your business? ;-)...Kris
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Neo1
12/6/2012 1:15 AM EST
This is one temp way to make the quarterly balance sheet look good. Apart from that I don't see any long term advantage. Putting ones house on the block shows how bad things have gotten for them. Nokia withering away at the seams and probably a pvt equity takeover candidate in the next two years.
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GREAT-Terry
12/6/2012 1:16 AM EST
I bet Nokia is counting down! .... maybe its time to buy a Nokia phone and keep it for a good memory of this revolutionary company once in our history! Show to our grand grand son that this brand was once the best phone (if phone is still the name for communication by then).
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