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Nokia wants to sell off its headquarters in Espoo, Finland, move in as tenant
Just how deep do Nokia's financial woes go? According to Finnish journal Helsingin Sanomat and Reuters, deep enough that it's mulling the sale of Nokia House, its principal HQ located in Espoo, Finland. The company told the journals that it's looking to divest "non-core parts" of its business, "and that includes the headquarters," according to a spokesman. Since Nokia has lost billions just in the last two quarters alone, it is likely looking for cash wherever it can and its Espoo property is worth $250-400 million, according to Helsingin. However, the cellphone maker is adamant it would stay in its home country, and could remain a primary tenant in the sprawling complex after such a sale. If they do unload the property, we're just glad we recently got some souvenirs.
Kodak to sell the film business that made it so famous (update)
Kodak is selling off its renowned film arm in order to revive its moribund fortunes. It'll join sales of the company's patent portfolio, online gallery, commercial scanning, photo kiosk and theme park businesses so it can concentrate on a not-yet successful printer enterprise. It needs to raise more than $660 million to pay back creditors before it can emerge from Chapter 11, which it aims to do early next year -- but not in any form that we're likely to recognize. [Image Credit: MercerFilm] Update: The company got in touch to say that while those parts of the business are being put up for sale, manufacturing, sales and marketing of Kodak-branded film products (and motion picture products) will remain within the Eastman-Kodak company.
Vringo buys small Nokia patent portfolio as asset sell-off continues
Nokia's sale of the century hour continues, selling off a small intellectual property portfolio to Vringo. The little-known app maker has snapped up a bundle of 500 patents and applications from the Finnish phone maker, including 109 issued US Patents. The collection mostly concerns backbone tech, including communication management, signal transmission and cellular infrastructure. Neither company mentioned a figure, but Vringo revealed that Nokia's getting a chunk of any future profits made. There's PR after the break if you're curious enough to wonder if Stephen Elop's planning the mobile phone equivalent of a yard sale.
Google reportedly considering sell-off of Motorola's set-top box business
This one is still far from a sure thing and would represent something of an about-face from earlier statements made by CEO Larry Page, but The New York Post is reporting today that Google may be looking to sell-off Motorola Mobility's set-top box division as its $12.5 billion acquisition of the company nears a close. Specifically, the Post reports that Google has brought on Qatalyst Partners and Barclays Capital to help shop the business around, and the paper's sources say that Google is "highly likely" to sell-off the division, at least partly because cable operators have "shunned" buying Motorola set-top boxes ahead of the acquisition. Details get decidedly murkier beyond that, with one source only going so far as to ballpark a possible sale price at anywhere from $2.5 to $4 billion. For its part, Google said only that it doesn't "comment on rumor or speculation."
Compromised account leads to massive Bitcoin sell off, EFF reconsiders use of currency
Bitcoin, for those not aware, is a completely digital currency -- one where exchanges between individuals are largely anonymous and secured through cryptography, and one that has seen its hype-meter go off the charts in recent months. That, inevitably, has had some people waiting for a fall, and it took a big one this week. While things have since bounced back, the value of the currency on the so-called Mt. Gox exchange dropped from around $17.50 to just one cent in a matter of moments during the early hours of June 20th -- a drop that's since been attributed to a compromised account. Thanks to a daily withdrawal limit, however, that apparently only resulted in $1,000 actually being stolen, and a claims process has now been set up for those affected. While not directly related to the sell off, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (or EFF) also dealt a bit of a blow to the upstart currency this week, when it announced that it would no longer be accepting Bitcoin donations. According to the organization, that's both because it doesn't "fully understand the complex legal issues involved with creating a new currency system," and because it doesn't want its acceptance of Bitcoins misconstrued as an endorsement of Bitcoin. Head on past the break for an account of the aforementioned plunge as it happened. [Thanks, Zigmar; image: Wikipedia]
Earth Eternal showing signs of life
We'd heard about Sparkplay Media's issues with raising further funding to continue its independent anthropomorphic MMO, Earth Eternal. When the game and overall site dropped offline a few weeks ago without any further official statement, we figured that time had run out, and it was simply the sunsetting of another MMO. That's why we were surprised to see both the Earth Eternal Facebook and Twitter accounts light back up, if only to let us know someone's still there -- and that there's still hope. The message on Facebook notes, "...our ISP pulled the plug for non-payment, which was expected. I wasn't able to give you any warning, unfortunately, because I was at Burning Man and completely out of reach for the week that it went down. Full backups of all the data exist and the company that is in the process of buying Earth Eternal will be starting it back up again in the nearish future." As to what company is seeking to purchase the game and how fast this process will be moving, we have no idea. However, we're certain that this nugget of reboot hope is welcome news to those who were enjoying this kitschy, yet fun, title. With any luck we'll be hearing something from a representative of Sparkplay before too long.
Comcast looking to sell outlying markets
Times are tough aoul over, and even cable giant Comcast isn't immune to a little tightening of the belt. Word coming out of Maine is that Comcast is looking to sell 46 of the markets on the outskirts of its footprint, mostly in Maine, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia, Georgia, West Virginia and California. The move is about more than just the monies that will be generated by selling off its subscriber eyeballs, though. At a going rate of $3,000 - $4,500 per subscriber, that's not an insignificant chunk of change, either. By geographically concentrating its service areas, it should be cheaper to deliver services, including the all-important "triple play." If you're affected by this selloff, we're hoping your HD lineup won't suffer for it.
Hitachi unsurprisingly looks to sell stake in CRT operations
Not even a month after Hitachi announced that it would be axing production and sales of RPTVs in North America, the firm has followed up by stating its intentions to sell its entire stake in a Chinese joint venture that produces CRTs. More specifically, the firm will offload its 25-percent stake in Shenzhen SEG Hitachi Color Display Devices to a local investor for 175 million yuan, or around $24 million. Reportedly, the company will be focusing the newly-freed resources on "growth areas such as plasmas," but that doesn't exactly jive with Hitachi's previous viewpoints on the generally shaky PDP market. Nevertheless, we can't say that we're shocked to hear of this exit, but so long as we're headed onwards and upwards, you won't find us tearing up over the loss.
AAPL hammered yesterday on iPhone production rumors
Tuesday was a rough day for Apple investors, as shares dropped precipitously from post-earnings-report highs of $148 a share down into the low $130s. Most of the credit/blame for the selloff is being attributed to a rumor floated among traders and on a posting at TheStreet.com that Apple was cutting back iPhone production by 50% off the company's original plans. Most of the potential sources later disavowed the information. Considering that there has never been an official production target other than the "10 million phones by 2008" number (note also that a production cut was not discussed during the earnings call), longtime Apple stock watchers on the Mac Observer forums characterized the bear run on AAPL as a "deliberate hit," executed by unscrupulous persons who have positioned themselves to take advantage of the drop in value to shore up their holdings.Remember, AAPL investors, it's a marathon, not a sprint. via Apple 2.0 and BloggingStocksDisclaimer: I hold a position in AAPL.
