微软的诺基亚收购已成败笔？

    微软即将再次裁减约7800名员工，并支付7.5亿-8.5亿美元与裁员相关的重组费用，外加上76亿美元的资产减计，以上种种都表明，微软18个月前以72亿美元收购诺基亚手机业务是一项非常愚蠢的举动。

    收购诺基亚收购曾被史蒂夫·鲍尔默视为其心血之作。这位微软前任首席执行官执意要重整微软被苹果和安卓设备打压得喘不过气来的移动业务。当时一个观点是，通过收购方式进入移动领域要比从头打造这一业务来得更快，而且或许更节省成本。

    Forrester Research分析师弗兰克·吉列特便是这一观点的拥趸。“没人看到Windows手机，诺基亚让微软进入了这一硬件领域，为此，微软也付出了高昂的代价。我觉得，微软进入这一领域势在必行，如果要选择另一种方式，则只有从零开始，但这样会耗费更长的时间。”

    微软的一位前任经理（目前是该公司的合作伙伴）指出，诺基亚是鲍尔默与史蒂芬·埃洛普之间的人情交易，后者是微软前任高管，后成为了诺基亚首席执行官，并于收购之后又回到了微软。他说：“他们真应该拍一部电影，而不是做交易。”（因重组需要，埃洛普于两周前离开了微软）

    独立分析师大卫·林希卡姆表示，鲍尔默收购诺基亚的动因在于对谷歌和苹果的嫉羡，如果微软好好经营的话，也不至于现在这样，但微软未能做到这一点。去年，公司宣布计划裁员1.8万名员工，很多都是手机业务部门的员工。显然，事情有点不对劲。

    林希卡姆在邮件中写道，“如今，微软将有可能把主要精力放在那些想要更好的管理系统和安全性的用户上。这将是场硬仗，因为其他手机和移动操作系统服务提供商也一直在努力提供管理和安全能力。因此，微软所做的业务有什么区别吗？答案是：区别不大。”

    有些人则认为，这一领域还是有机可寻的。

    这位前任高管表示，“如果微软拥有硬件和操作系统的所有权，那么它便可以在非洲和其他新兴市场重振旗鼓。这些市场拥有四五十亿人口，这一技术对他们来说还十分陌生。这些人并不需要智能手机，可以用极具特色的手机作为切入点。电信公司和其他基础设施提供商将因此而赚得盆满钵盈。微软也有机会在其中分一杯羹。至于它将如何运作，让我们拭目以待。”

    因此，与去年一样，当前的问题仍在于：于2014年2月开始执掌微软的首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉是否能做出其前任未能做出的决断？他在上月发布的内部备忘录中提到了诸多艰难抉择，在目前看来，他似乎有决心而且有能力做出这些抉择。这对于微软来说可能是件好事。（财富中文网）

    译者：冯丰

    校对：詹妮

    Given that MicrosoftMSFT -0.14% is about to axe another 7,800 employees, take a restructuring charge of $750 million to $850 million related to the layoffs plus a $7.6 billion impairment charge, it’s hard to argue that the $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s phone business 18 months ago was anything but folly.

    The Nokia deal was seen as Steve Ballmer’s baby. The former Microsoft CEO was hell-bent on fixing Microsoft’s mobile business where it was getting buried by AppleAAPL -2.48% and Android devices. It could even be argued that buying its way into mobile was faster and maybe cheaper than building that business organically.

    Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett is in that camp. “Nokia got Microsoft into the hardware business where no one was betting on Windows Phone, but at a steep price. I think they couldn’t afford not to get in that business and the alternative would have been to invent it from scratch which would have taken longer.”

    One former Microsoft manager, who still works with the company as a partner, said Nokia was a “buddy deal between Ballmer and Stephen Elop,” the former Microsoft exec who left to become CEO of Nokia and returned to Microsoft as part of the acquisition. “They should have made a movie, not a deal,” he said. (Elop left Microsoft two weeks ago as part of a reorg.)

    Ballmer was driven to purchase Nokia by Google-GOOG -1.56% and Apple-envy, which might have been fine if the company had executed well, but it didn’t, said David Linthicum, an independent analyst. Last year it was clear that something was awry when the company announced plans to cut 18,000 employees, many from the phone unit.

    “Now, Microsoft will likely focus on users that want enhanced management capabilities and security. That’s going to be a tough course to follow considering that other phone and mobile OS providers have been working hard to provide management and security capabilities as well. So, what does Microsoft do different? Not much,” Linthicum said via email.

    Others think that some lemonade may be squeezed out of this lemon yet.

    “If Microsoft owns the rights to the hardware and the OS they could redeem themselves in Africa and other emerging markets. Those markets have 4 to 5 billion people that have not been touched by tech. They don’t need smart phones. They’ll start with super-feature phones. The telcos and other infrastructure providers are going to make a fortune. Microsoft may have a chance to play here too. We shall see how they play their hand,” said the former exec.

    So, the question is now, as it’s been for the past year: Can CEO Satya Nadella, who took the job in February, 2014, execute where his predecessor did not? So far it looks like he is willing and able to make the tough choices he telegraphed last month in an internal memo. And that’s probably a good thing for Microsoft.