The Nexus Of Nokia And Microsoft: Unveiling A Strategic Merger Case Study

Synergies Arising from the Merger

Discuss about the Merger and Acquisitions for Case of Microsoft Acquisition in Nokia.

In the present business scenario, the strategy of unit and rule is more followed than divide and rule. Today, the companies are coming together to join hands so that the resources could be utilized to the optimum level (Anderson, Havila, and Nilsson, 2012). In a merger and acquisition deal, two or more companies are consolidated to bring into existence a single entity. Merger and acquisition strategy can be quite handy for the companies operating in the same industry to get competitive advantages. In the recent years, the merger and acquisitions have increased rapidly, which is evident from the fact that in the year 2015 total merger and acquisition deals announced worldwide were $4.4 trillion. This was straightaway 42% higher than 2014 (Lam, 2016).

In the context developed above, the discussion in this paper has been extended to the analysis of the effects of merger of Microsoft with Nokia. Microsoft announced acquisition of Nokia’s assets in the year 2013 for $7.90 billion. This paper addresses the synergy gains or losses and other effects of the merger on Microsoft.    

It is often seen in the merger and acquisitions deals that the buyer pays premium or extra charge over and above the value of net assets acquired in a merger deal. This premium or extra charge is paid for synergy gains that the buyer expects to reap out from that merger deal (Karenfort, 2011). Thus, synergy can be inferred to be the additional value created as a result of combining the operations of the two companies together. The synergy created by the merger could be financial and/or operating (Gaughan, 2013). The financial synergy is manifested in the increased debt capacity, improvement in the liquidity, tax benefits, and improved overall financial performance of the resulting company after merger. On the other hand, operating synergy is manifested in the economies of scale, reduced competition, and enhanced goodwill in the market (Gaughan, 2013).

In the current case of Microsoft and Nokia merger, the evaluation of synergy has been made by analyzing the financial performance of the Microsoft pre and post merger. The facts and figures for pre acquisition period that relate to the period before the year 2014 have been analyzed as below:

Table 1: Financial Performance of Microsoft before Merger

(Microsoft, 2016)

Table 2: Financial Performance of Microsoft after Merger

(Microsoft, 2016)

From the data presented in the table-1, it could be observed that the company was maintaining an average gross profit ratio of 77.03%. The revenues of the company were growing at a study pace. The average revenues earned by the company in the period of four years from 2010 to 2013 amounted to $70,999.50 million (Table-1). Further, the company was making healthy profit margins at a percentage of 32.11%. However, immediately after the acquisition of the Nokia’s assets, there was observed a downfall in the company’s profitability. The gross profit margin reduced from 73.99% in the year 2013 to 68.82% in the year 2014 and it further went down in the year 2015 to 64.70%.

Test of Merger Theory

It may be noted that the company was able to increase its sales after acquiring the assets from Nokia in the year 2013. The sales revenues increased from $77,849 million in the year 2013 to $93,580 million in the year 2015. Though, the company achieved growth in the revenues, but the gross margins went down, which indicates increase in the cost of operations. The increase in the cost of operations is a clear indication that the company did not receive economies of scale from the acquisition of Nokia’s assets. Thus, there was no operational and/or financial synergy for Microsoft from the acquisition of the assets from Nokia.

The company’s profitability was affected adversely from this merger deal, which is evident from the deterioration in the net margin. As against the average net profit margin of 32.11% in the four years preceding the acquisition, the company could maintain only 19.23% net margin in the two years after the acquisition. Further, the ESP of the company was down to $1.49 in the year 2015 from as high as $2.61 in the year 2013. Considering the bad financial performance in the post acquisition period, the company admitted that the merger deal with Nokia was the biggest failure (Keizer, 2015).                     

The merger theory believes that the aggregate value of two separate firms is always lower than the combined value when those two firms are merged. This implies that the aggregate market capitalization value of Microsoft and Nokia would be lower than the market capitalization value of Microsoft after merger with Nokia. The theory of merger is based on the premise that the two firms operating separately would not be able earn equal to the earrings of the firm created by merging those two firms. The theory states that this enhanced value is created as a result of synergy emerging from the merged operations. However, not all the merger and acquisitions deals gets succeed.

In the case of Microsoft acquiring assets of Nokia, the test of this theory of merger is being carried out as under:

Table 3: Evaluation of the Merger Impact

*Note: In computing market value before merger for Nokia, the assets that are under acquisition have been considered. Therefore, the market value of Nokia has been taken as the market value of its assets under acquisition that is $9,442 million (Microsoft, 2015).   

From the above figures, it could be observed that the market value of Microsoft increased by $70,102.65 immediately after the acquisition of the Nokia’s assets. However, this acquisition was a failure for the company, but still the market value increased substantially after the finalization of the acquisition deal. From this situation, it could be inferred that this was a short term speculative effect on the stock’s price of the company which laid increase in the market capitalization in the year 2014 as compared to the year 2013.             

The results of merger and acquisition could be negative if the process of merger and acquisitions is not handled strategically. In the absence of strategic approach towards merger and acquisitions, the companies have been seen facing complete failure. As per the study conducted by Coopers and Lybrand, there are five major factors that affect the success and failure of the merger and acquisitions (Milnerltd.com, 2014). These five factors are detailed post acquisition integration plans, clarity of acquisition purpose, good culture fit, high degree of target management, and knowledge of target and its industry. Among these five factors, Coopers and Lybrand regarded the post acquisition integration plan as the most crucial (Milnerltd.com, 2014).

In the current case being analyzed in this paper, Microsoft had failed sustaining the acquisition of Nokia’s assets in the merger deal. The company could not capitalize on this merger deal due to absence of clarity in the objectives of acquisition and post acquisition integration plan. Though this merger deal the company tried to enter into the new market leaving its core field operations unfocused. Further, post revelations of the failure of merger, it was observed that lack in clarity of acquisition purposes and adequate planning for integration were also the reasons for failure of the merger (Milnerltd.com, 2014).  

The merger and acquisition decisions are very sensitive to the market; therefore, the management should be cautious in drawing out such decisions (Milnerltd.com, 2014). Preparing a detailed merger plan including analysis of the future trend is a prerequisite to go for merger and acquisition deal. In the current case, Microsoft could not analyze the future trend of mobile industry appropriately, which caused failure of the company’s merger with Nokia. The financial performance started affecting adversely as soon as the company acquired assets from Nokia. The acquisition was made in the last quarter of the financial year 2013 and in the year 2015, the company wrote off $7.10 billion as the cost of merger (Keizer, 2015).

Conclusion

The discussion in this paper revolves around the issues governing the merger and acquisitions in the corporate world. The main focus area of this paper is to highlight the synergy in the context of merger and understand the factors the cause failure of the merger and acquisition deals. For this purpose, the case of Microsoft and Nokia merger has been analyzed in this paper. Microsoft acquired assets of phone division of Nokia for an amount of $7.10 billion in the year 2013. Though, the company was expecting to benefit at the big scale from this deal, but it could not sustain it for a longer period. Finally, in the year 2015, the company announced admitting the fact that it failed in the merger with Nokia.  

References

Anderson, H., Havila, V., and Nilsson, F. 2012. Mergers and Acquisitions: The Critical Role of Stakeholders. Routledge.

Gaughan, P.A. 2013. Maximizing Corporate Value through Mergers and Acquisitions: A Strategic Growth Guide. John Wiley & Sons.

Karenfort, S. 2011. Synergy in Mergers & Acquisitions: The Role of Business Relatedness. BoD – Books on Demand.

Keizer, G. 2015. Microsoft writes off $7.6B, admits failure of Nokia acquisition. [Online]. Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2945371/smartphones/microsoft-writes-off-76b-admits-failure-of-nokia-acquisition.html [Accessed on: 05 December 2016].

Lam, B. 2016. 2015: A Merger Bonanza. [Online]. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/2015-mergers-acquisitions/423096/ [Accessed on: 05 December 2016].

Microsoft. 2015. Annual report of Microsoft for 2015. [Online]. Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar15/download-center/index.html [Accessed on: 05 December 2016].

Microsoft. 2016. Investor Relations Annual Reports. [Online]. Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/annual-reports.aspx [Accessed on: 05 December 2016].

Milnerltd.com. 2014. 10 steps to Success in Merger and Acquisitions. [Online]. Available at: https://www.milnerltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/10-Steps-to-Success-in-Mergers-Acquisitions.pdf [Accessed on: 05 December 2016].

Yahoo Finance. 2016. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Historical Prices. [Online]. Available at: https://in.finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=MSFT&a=06&b=01&c=2012&d=07&e=31&f=2014&g=m [Accessed on: 05 December 2016].