Nokia downsizing set to continue with rumoured sale of HERE

Nokia Oyj is apparently looking into flogging one of its three remaining business arms, as its focus on the continued growth of its networking arm increases further, according to reports from Bloomberg. The report, which cites people familiar with the matter, reckons the mapping arm of Nokia, HERE, is being touted to various global parties.

The Finnish kit maker is apparently sussing out potential buyers and has allegedly contacted firms including Uber, the private driver app, as well as private equity firms and a group of German car makers. Bids for the business could materialise sometime this month, and Nokia has slapped a value of about €2 billion on it, according to their financial reports.

The rumoured sale of HERE follows the selling off of its Devices and Services business to Microsoft in April last year. Nokia generated roughly $7.2 billion from the sale, which was agreed in September 2013.  Microsoft promptly went about a mammoth workforce restructuring effort upon the completion of the acquisition last year, which saw 18,000 jobs cut, a reduction of roughly 14% in the size of the organisation’s overall workforce.

At the time, Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, detailed plans for scaling back the Nokia brand, which is now defunct on new devices coming out of the Lumia range.

“We plan to shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows,” he said.

Any potential sale of HERE will leave Nokia with just two functioning business arms as its scale-down continues. Nokia Networks comprises roughly 90% of Nokia’s overall sales, according to its Q4 2014 report; while its other division, Nokia Technologies, made up roughly 5% of all sales. HERE came in at about 7.5% of total sales.

According to Bloomberg’s original report, there have also been murmurings of a potential move by Nokia Networks to acquire part of Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless access business. Nokia Networks has been increasingly focussing on the RAN aspect of its business over the past 12-24 months, and has claimed a lot of big client wins when it comes to LTE roll-outs and mobile edge optimisation recently.

A spokesperson from Nokia was unavailable for comment when contacted by Telecoms.com.