Eldar Murtazin’s prognostications are often the source of heated debate, not only regarding their veracity but what the impact of the news would be, should it be revealed as true. The rumors he started spreading last night are no exception, with claims that Nokia was about to sell-off its smartphone operations to Microsoft. While we haven’t heard anything out of Microsoft regarding the suggestion, Nokia has now had a chance to respond, and rejects the notion, claiming that its work with Microsoft will remain a partnership.
If this all sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. These rumors mirror Murtazin’s earlier claims from last spring regarding Microsoft’s intention to acquire Nokia’s mobile division. Stephen Elop described those as being “baseless” at the time.
With this idea of a buyout now apparently repeating itself, Nokia is falling back on its same reaction as before. The company’s UK division referenced the earlier incident in a statement today, saying, “we’ve put these rumours to rest a long time ago.”
The spokesman continued, “the focus for Nokia is on executing on our partnership around Windows Phone and growing the ecosystem, and each company has the tools they need to do so.” That certainly seems like a sensible position; why fix what’s not broken? Nokia’s just now starting to come into the limelight as a Windows Phone fixture, so why stop the party now? Unless Eldar starts coming up with some evidence to back his claims, he’s risking becoming the boy who cried wolf.
