http://www.economist.com/news/business/21590363-after-sale-its-devices-division-microsoft-what-was-once-worlds-biggest
Nokia has reinvented itself before. It began in pulp, in 1865. It switched into power generation, stretched into rubber goods and cables, and tuned in to televisions that in the 1980s were among Europe’s best sellers. But its consumer-electronics division fizzled, made deep losses and was sold, as were rubber and cables, in the 1990s. Mobile phones were Nokia’s future then. Soon they will be its past, and 32,000 Nokians—including the former chief executive, Stephen Elop—will be Microserfs. Mr Elop, an ex-Microsoft man, declared Nokia’s own mobile-phone platform to be “burning” in 2011 and leapt onto Microsoft’s instead. He may soon be his old firm’s new boss.
