Nokia shares soar 6% in Finland on rumor of Samsung bid

If Finnish investors could go back in time, they probably would have slapped some money down on Nokia's shares. The equity of the Finnish handset manufacturer rose 6% on Friday thanks to rumors that the company is about to get a takeover bid from Korean tech giant Samsung. This isn't the first time such rumors have appeared and exactly one year ago Friday, the same rumor hit the street. The difference is that back then, Nokia was worth $24 billion compared to the current market cap of $11 billion and the shares have dropped 40% over the last three months.

The flagship Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia would certainly be an affordable purchase for Samsung. The latter is raking in big bucks with the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S III which had 9 million units pre-ordered last month according to a company executive, not including the U.S. and Canada.

"Samsung is flying at the moment and it is hard to see what it would gain from buying Nokia. Any benefit it would gain from Nokia's patent portfolio or manufacturing facilities would likely be outweighed by the complexities of integrating the two companies."-Ovum analyst Nick Dillon

Swedish newspaper Dagens industri reports that Samsung has offered $4 Euros a share for Nokia. That would work out to a bid of $18.7 billion or a 70% premium over the current trading price of the company. Nokia has refused to comment on the story. Most analysts believe that Microsoft would be a better fit for Nokia because of the latter's reliance on Microsoft's mobile OS, Windows Phone. Nokia has produced the flagship Windows Phone model, the Nokia Lumia 900 and by purchasing Nokia, Microsoft could join Apple and Google (which owns Motorola Mobility) in producing hardware for its own mobile platform.

source: Reuters