Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) shares so far in 2012 have plunged the most among large cap tech stocks with a fall of about 38% yesterday but its green performance last week was on top with some of the same stocks, beating popular companies such as Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).
Even though the Finnish company trimmed part of last week’s gains yesterday, the stock still finished in the top five for the last five trading sessions.
Friday’s gains for the mobile-phone maker struggling to recover lost market share, were the best this month as shares advanced nearly 7% in heavy volume. The gains were led by speculation of acquisition interest from South Korean competitor Samsung Electronics, according to Reuters.
Analysts played down the likelihood of an offer from Samsung for Nokia, a company that has been quickly losing market share. Ovum analyst Nick Dillon said that Samsung is currently flying and it is difficult to observe what benefit it would gain from acquiring Nokia. Nick Dillon added that any benefit it would gain from Nokia’s patent collection or production plans would likely be outweighed by the complexities of integrating the two companies.
Ben Wood, the leading research analyst at CCS Insight, said he cannot find a rational reason why Samsung would want to takeover Nokia right now. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) which teamed up with Nokia for its new smartphones, has been seen as the most likely buyer.
Last year the stock sharply declined after a strategy shift in its smartphone business and this year shares fell as consumers snapped up Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones and smartphones running on Google Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android software.
Nokia has lost as much as 70 billion euros or $87 billion in market value since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, winning the top spot for smartphone innovation. Samsung Electronics Co. surpassed Nokia in the first quarter as the world’s biggest handset maker, according to Gartner Inc. Bo Nordberg, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Ltd. in London, said that a lot of names have been cited as possible bidders, but it is not particularly convincing.
Last year, Nokia and Siemens AG ended discussions to sell their network-equipment joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, to private-equity buyers.
