Nokia, private equity chat about €200m bling phone firm sale
Vertu is its own reward?
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Nokia's plan to sell off Vertu, its subsidiary that makes handsets for folk with so much money they don't even need sense, emerged back in December 2011. Now it looks like the sale may go ahead.
Talking to the Finnish phone giant is, one mole claims, Permira, a Europe-based private equity company. The alleged asking price: €200 million (£162m), the Financial Times reports.
Nokia previously discussed the matter with EQT, another private equity form, but, says the FT the outcome was not positive.
Vertu has long offered Nokia handsets hand-blinged up with precious metals, gems and grotesquely inflated prices - "If you have to ask, sir…" - that make Apple product look like thrift-store offerings.
That might not matter if they were jam-packed with advance technology, but the only thing that's truly cutting edge about these boys is the diamonds some are decorated with. Vertu didn't launch a smartphone until late 2010. Its first touchscreen model came out in 2011. ®
COMMENTS
Vertu website
I was looking through the Vertu website and all I can say is wow those are some really ugly phones. I don't care if they're made from exotic materials or studded with rubies, IMO they're vulgar looking devices designed to appeal to vulgar rich people. Even assuming I was rich enough to be able to drop $4000+ on a phone I would still favour a regular phone over one of these.
Re: Fantastic News
Samsung makes Windows Phone devices too you know, e.g. Omnia 7. It's just they haven't lashed themselves to a burning deck while doing it.
Re: Good, good
And there I was thinking that El Reg was a discussion forum - and all the time it was just a who's-the-cleverest-clever-boy competition.
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