Nokia has had a rough few years. Once the cell phone king, the company struggled to make an impact on the smartphone market prior to adopting Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system as its primary smartphone OS. Things aren't looking as grim as they once were, but is Nokia looking to sell itself?
A report from the Financial Times this morning cited head of consumer business at Huawei, Richard Yu, as saying the company was 'open minded' about a Nokia acquisition. Yu's comments were made in the context of Huawei becoming the leader of the smartphone market. Currently, it's number three behind Samsung and Apple. Yu said the company would consider acquiring other phone makers in order to be number one.
"We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia. We are open-minded."
Nokia's stock jumped at the news, rising more than 10 percent and eventually closing at $3.86, a 4.61 percent change compared to a smidgen over $3.70 on Monday. However, Huawei has since clarified that it doesn't have any plans to buy the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer. Huawei's vice president for external affairs, Bill Plummer, told Reuters it had no plans to buy Nokia but didn't elaborate on whether or not his company had considered it. Interestingly, Nokia refused to comment on the report when reached by Reuters. Could that mean the company is open to a sale?
