Tragedies end badly. Nokia makes the point with a vengeance. The mobile phone maker once carried a market capitalisation of over €200bn. Now it proposes to flog off its core mobile devices business (together with a long-term patent licence) to Microsoft – on which it has become increasingly dependent – for €5.4bn. That caused Nokia shares to jump, but still leaves the Finnish group’s market price tag at about €15bn (and enterprise value even lower). This is value destruction of a rare order, and it cannot be blamed solely on former management’s misjudgments about smartphone developments. The €200bn market cap dates to 2001, but in 2008 Nokia was still valued at over €100bn. In the three years since former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop took Nokia’s helm, the group’s stock market worth has halved.
悲剧的结局难免凄惨。诺基亚(Nokia)把这一点演绎到了极致。这家手机制造商的市值曾超过2000亿欧元。如今，它打算将自己核心的移动设备业务（以及长期专利许可）以54亿欧元的价格出售给它已经变得越来越依赖的微软(Microsoft)。此举导致诺基亚股价大幅上涨。尽管如此，这家芬兰集团的市值仍只有150亿欧元左右（企业价值甚至更低）。这样的贬值幅度是罕见的，不能完全归咎于诺基亚前管理层对智能手机市场的误判。尽管2000亿欧元的市值要追溯到2001年，但在2008年时，诺基亚的价值仍有1000多亿欧元。自三年前微软前高管斯蒂芬•埃洛普(Stephen Elop)接任诺基亚首席执行官以来，该集团的市值减少了一半。