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Moody's downgrades Nokia to near-junk status

58 points| chrisaycock | 14 years ago |theregister.co.uk | reply

41 comments

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[+] cowkingdeluxe|14 years ago|reply
Why should any credence be given to Moody's when they were the same group of people who were rating subprime mortgages as AAA. In my mind, they lost their credibility as a ratings agency.
[+] ticks|14 years ago|reply
Whenever I look at a story about Moody's, S&P and so on, there's almost always two types of comments: people who are threatened by their decisions (and discredit them) and people who feel vindicated (and think the decision is great). I don't know what to believe, but I would hope that these entities are less subordinate these days.
[+] guelo|14 years ago|reply
FTFA: "You could argue that Moody's was one of the ratings agencies that consistently passed off sub-prime debt as investment grade material in the noughties and that it may well be wrong – indeed, Nokia's share price rose slightly on Monday. But more than a few analysts are now seriously concerned about Nokia's future, with the company losing both staff and customers, and in an alliance with Microsoft to push an unpopular mobile operating system."
[+] taligent|14 years ago|reply
Which is why they have done a 180 are now being extra cautious.

And in doing so causing just as many problems as before. They really deserve a lot more hatred and derision then they are getting.

[+] rollypolly|14 years ago|reply
You're right, it's also like kicking Nokia while it's down. It's really sad.
[+] jagjit|14 years ago|reply
This downgrade is just based on Nokia's current performance which is going to continue to be bad for a couple of quarters.

But their balance sheet is solid and looks like the Nokia Lumia 900 phones are getting very good reviews and selling well: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Cell-Phones-Accessories-S...

I played with my wife's lumia 710 and it beats iphone in ease of use. If these phones sell well, which they seem to be doing, developers and apps will come too.

[+] gjulianm|14 years ago|reply
Totally agree. Way too much people thinks changes happen instantly. Nokia did not adapt to the iPhone-Android boom, and it's paying it now. Any movement they do now will be reflected in performance in the next quarters, as that lack of adaptation is reflecting now in their performance.

I think Nokia will improve significantly in terms of revenue. The new Lumias are pretty good and are selling really well. Also, don't forget that behind this stands Microsoft, which still has an enormous dominance in the enterprise business, and who could push Windows Phone as the perfect complement for all the enterprise software it is already selling (Office, Outlook, Exchange, Lync, Windows, Windows Server...)

[+] alsocasey|14 years ago|reply
I have a 710 and for 250$ (in Canada, off contract) it's an outstanding performer.
[+] radicaldreamer|14 years ago|reply
I think that Microsoft will probably end up buying Nokia outright at some point if this slide continues, especially if Google gets serious about making it's own hardware via it's Motorola Mobility acquisition.
[+] rbanffy|14 years ago|reply
I think this was the plan from the start and I said so from the moment Elop was hired.

note: the downvotes are so predictable on threads like this...

[+] dirkdk|14 years ago|reply
No, my money is on Microsoft buying RIM/Blackberry. Those guys are gone in 3 months. After that acquisition Nokia will not be possible anymore because of anti-competition regulations.
[+] mason55|14 years ago|reply
There are already rumblings of Google selling off the Mobility hardware
[+] web_chops|14 years ago|reply
I think the mobile landscape is going to look pretty barren in a few more years. Just like the desktops, we seem to near the consolidation of mobile OS market with weaker sides getting eliminated rapidly.
[+] peterwwillis|14 years ago|reply
So should this stop someone from taking a job at Nokia?
[+] chrisaycock|14 years ago|reply
A credit rating is a likelihood of default. In other words, Moody's believes that Nokia has a non-negligible chance of declaring bankruptcy. These ratings are intended for investors.

Moody's isn't passing judgement on Nokia as an employer, though you may take into consideration the probability of getting laid-off in the next 12 months.

[+] loverobots|14 years ago|reply
Moody's is a joke. When they screw up they claim "free speech" so they can away with it.

How's the phone for those HN-ers that have it? That is the only thing that matters. Uncle Ballmer is loaded, he can bankroll this thing for quite a while, make no mistake about it. 1 Million phones X $100 price drop = $100 million, or almost chump change for http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT+Key+Statistics . Microsoft can take a special charge of $1 billion for a year or two to bail Nokia out or to lower the price so people are enticed. Will the investors say anything when you are minting over $20 Billion a year? I doubt it.

Declare Microsoft dead at your own peril. The world is moving to doing a lot of stuff in their phones and Microsoft is not about to roll over in their turf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile