Withings acquired by Nokia

[josep2]

I have 3 Withings products and I must say all 3 have helped improve my life and health. I hope this helps create more great things rather than uncertainty.

[eddieroger]

I agree - I have a wifi scale that is part of my daily routine, and it's helped me so much. I was debating a few of their other products, and I don't think this changes that plan, despite some other comments saying be weary of the merged Withings.

[pjc50]

Given the history of acquisitions, I'd say prepare for your devices to be EOL and possibly remote-bricked within a year.

[yoda_sl]

The acquisition price is apparently around $191M USD (€170M):

  http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/nokia-withings-acquisition-news/

I am overall happy with Withings products: wifi scale, step counter and blood pressure. My hope is that Nokia will be doing a better job with the acquisition than how they kept up with smartphones.

The purchase price seems to be on the low end; Withings do have a lot of personal customers info related to health and activities so I was thinking an acquisition price will be higher.

[PakG1]

My hope is that Nokia will be doing a better job with the acquisition than how they kept up with smartphones.

When I look at the corporate history of Nokia and see that they used to be in industries completely unrelated to electronics, let alone mobile phones, I have this tiny inkling of hope that they still know how to make big pivots. That's probably simplifying their corporate history too much, but the point is that Nokia wasn't even always a phone company. Things can change.

[pkaye]

My concern is if Nokia or someone else drops the ball and the online accounts are deactivated that all these cool products become nearly useless. I very much depend on my Withings scale to automate my weight measurements on a daily basis.

[Eric_WVGG]

I'm optimistic. In a way, Nokia at its height commanded an industry of networked, "dumb" but highly complex electronic devices. They just couldn't keep up when their industry got disrupted by pocketable computers with complete GUIs.

The good IoT devices of the future won't be refrigerators with LCDs running Android grafted to them, they'll be more akin to smart interfaces electronic devices. If I’m right, the future of Nokia could be surprising.

[mtw]

$191M and Google got Nest for a billion. Nokia got a good deal there

[nutate]

Mass amounts of historic personal health info is more of a liability than an asset depending on the jurisdiction and the litigiousness of your customers in case of a breach.

[beat]

Well, good for the founders. I hope they and their investors walked off with a tidy sum from this. I have the Withings watch, and it's a very decent little device. They tackled the biggest gripe many people have with health monitor bracelets - that they look stupid and toylike. Withings made an actual watch out of it, and a decent-looking one. I replaced the band with a better leather one, and it gets compliments.

[c-slice]

Withings has consistently built really functional, beautiful products. From the outside it seems like an innovative, well run company. Hopefully this will continue to stay the same with Nokia.

[justjimmy]

I really enjoyed using my Withing as my daily weighing tool.

However, Nokia is not a brand that I associate with statements like "creating beautifully designed products" or general consumer products period. I wasn't aware they're tapping back into the general consumer market after selling off its mobile division? (Though I did hear something about making a come back in making phones for Nokia)

[mikestew]

However, Nokia is not a brand that I associate with statements like "creating beautifully designed products" or general consumer products period.

Do I really need mention their phones of old? As for consumer products, all I've owned are a set of their Bluetooth noise-canceling headphones (also "of old" considering I've had them for 5 or 6 years). They're awesome, and I'll be sad when they die. That's all I know, but it's enough that I wouldn't immediately discount the idea that Nokia can make decent consumer products.

[elsurudo]

Really? Old Nokia phones were beautifully designed, as are (IMO) Lumias (not sure how much of the latter is attributable to Microsoft, though).

[pavlov]

Nokia certainly has a history as a design-oriented consumer brand. They were making elegant metallic phones already in 1998:

https://www.google.com/search?q=nokia+8810

[chris_wot]

I didn't think Nokia existed as a seperate entity any more?

[stonogo]

They only sold their mobile device segment. They still power a ton of the world's networking infrastructure, especially since they acquired Alcatel-Lucent a while back.

For unix nerds: yes, Nokia now owns Bell Labs.

[runako]

Ouch.

Nokia has a market cap of $23B and did $14B in revenue over the last year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=NOK+Key+Statistics

[freyr]

Nokia exited the consumer market, so they fell off most people's radars. They've continued as a multinational network equipment company with over 100,000 employees, so they do still exist.

As far as I know, this is their first reentry into consumer products since getting out of the mobile phone business.

[LukeB_UK]

Microsoft only bought the Nokia phone manufacturing business and got a license to use the name for a period of time. The rest of the business still exists and seems to be doing well.

[supergeek133]

Is Nokia that involved in connected health?

[bkmn]

Here's to waiting for the "The Burning Smartwatch Memo"!

Jokes aside, I think Nokia has great potential in the wearables category.

[levemi]

That is some cringey completely self-unaware "our incredible journey" type stuff. Great things for everyone! Dear customers have a great heaping of uncertainty. Isn't everything so great? Everything will be fine!

[chaghalibaghali]

Looks like a good candidate for http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/

[sakri]

Together, we believe we can truly transform the world.

[freyr]

The acquisition isn't the result of a Mayer-esque spaghetti-against-the wall buying spree. Withings doesn't represent an existential threat to Nokia, so it's not something they'd like to watch whither on the vine. And it's not a robo-dog pet project of the week. Acquisitions are justifiably met with trepidation in general, but this doesn't seem bad.

I guess I just don't really understand the letter you'd have him write instead.

[supergeek133]

I'm sure someone at Nokia suggested most of that language.

[sdneirf]

Wait, Nokia is still around?

[ptaipale]

Nokia has been around since 1867 and continues as a profitable company.

[tuukkah]

FAQ - Microsoft bought Nokia's mobile phones but the rest of Nokia survives (marker cap $22 billion).

[codecamper]

sorry but these products just seem so lame & chintzy. Probably you can find all the same stuff on ebay for $10 delivered from china including s&h.

[kstrauser]

You've been misinformed. Their scale is a solid slab of sleek glass, and genuinely looks and feels nice. I'd totally buy a dumb version of it that looked exactly the same.

[programminggeek]

The first reaction pretty much everyone is going to have: "Wait, isn't Nokia a phone company?"

And that is why this will likely fail.

[Nullabillity]

And before that, everyone's reaction was: "Wait, isn't Nokia a tire company?"