Just general comparsions of the two companies. The odd thing is that they both mirror each others situtions very closely but by some of the posters you would think one is on its way to recovery and the other has no possible shot to turn itself around. Lets dive in shall we.
Nokia:
Once a bethemoth in the cell phone industry, in 2000 the company was sporting a marketcap north of 200 billion euros and was the largest company in Europe
Over the next decade plus, there was increasing competetion from Asian and American manufacturers in the space (especially from Samsung and Apple), nokia was late to adjust their product line to smartphones
Had a number of questionable acquistions with its biggest being Navteq for 8.1 billion dollars
As the companies fortunes turned, the Nokia was mired in losses and was burning through cash quickly
former management was thrown out, and a new CEO (american) was hired
Nokia is currently in the mist of a turnaround
Microsft investing 250 million per quarter into the company
Nokia early turnaround efforts were mared by negative feedback loops on their recent product, the lumia 900.
despite its turnaround efforts, Nokia's bonds was downgraded to junk status by all three credit rating agencies earlier this year (yet people still invest in it).
Nokia stock hit new low of $1.63
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Sony:
Once a bethemoth in the consumer electronics space. The company sported a 150 billion dollar marketcap in 2000
Over the next decade plus, there was increasing competetion from Asian and American manufacturers in the space (especially Samsung and Apple), Sony was late to adjust their product line (TVs and cell phones)
Sales further hampered by the strong yen through the 2000's
Had a number of questionable acquistions with its biggest being its buyout of Sony Ericsson for 1.47 billion dollars
As the companies fourturns turned, the company was mired in losses and had to constantly raise money
former management was thrown out, and a new CEO was promoted
Sony is currently in the mist of a turnaround
Sony early turnaround efforts were mared by negative feedback loops on their recent product, the Playstation Vita
despite its turnaround efforts, Sony was downgraded to junk status by fitch and its ratings lower by S&P and Moody's earlier this year
Sony stock hit new low of $9.77
Now many analyst are starting to jump back into Nokia with the announcement (via facebook which is highly questionable) of sellout of its nokia lumia 920, so one product seemingly is turning the fortunes of a very large company around. The efforts have lead to nokia shareprice doubling in the past 3 months. The same is happening with Research in Motion. Whats to say the same wont work for Sony?
