More Nokia takeover speculation following board meeting

There has been renewed speculation about the future of mobile phone giant Nokia, fuelled by reports of a series of meetings held by directors of the Finnish mobile phone giant.

The latest round of speculation started following reports from Finnish national broadcaster YLE (via Google Translate), stating a series of meetings had been held to make key decisions on the future direction of the company.

While the company did not officially comment on the contents of the meeting, it is believed the future direction of the company’s Nokia-Siemens Networks partnership was amongst the topics discussed.

News of the meetings comes after The Wall Street Journal reported late last week that Microsoft had held takeover talks with the company, although those talks had stalled.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Huawei’s consumer business, Richard Yu, also raised the prospect of a takeover last week.

“We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia,” Yu said.

Yu later clarified to Reuters there are no current takeover plans.

Meanwhile, former Nokia executive and industry analyst Tomi Ahonen is predicting more takeover speculation involving the company.

“Maybe finally now, we will see the bidding start on Nokia, and most likely, that Nokia would be split by the buyer(s) and various other companies,” Ahonen says.