Michael Terry's  Instablog

Nokia (NOK) in the news again:

Nokia is reportedly looking to sell its luxury brand Vertu to a private equity group for about 200 million euros, or about US$265.19 million.

The once-dominant cell phone maker is in advanced negotiations with Permira to unload the UK-based subsidiary, which is best known for offering US$20,000 cell phones, the Financial Times reported today (subscription required). Goldman Sachs was reportedly advising on the sale.

Following a similar move by Fitch Ratings last week, Standard & Poor's on Friday cut the rating for the Finnish mobile phone maker to "junk." The weaker rating reflects a lower estimate for sales from Nokia's handset division this year along with a revised forecast on profits and cash flow.

Earlier this month Nokia reported a US$1.76 billion loss for its first quarter as its Symbian phones continue to shed market share. The company has been hedging its bets on its new Windows Phone-based Lumia handsets, but sales have yet to take off on a global scale.

Earlier this year, the luxury phone maker launched a trio of phones to welcome the Year of the Dragon, complete with precious stones and top-grade metals, plus a hand-engraved four-claw dragon on the battery cover.

Article here.

I have been coming up the curve on this credit as a reader pointed out the bonds to me.

I was actually thinking of doing an experiment with Nokia, where I would consolidate and organize the thoughts of readers/contributors (with attribution of course) into an article on the company and thoughts on the capital structure. This would, of course, not be a premium article as I would not be solely responsible for the content and analysis and therefore not (in my opinion) entitled to any payment on it. The collective wisdom of crowds approach. Thoughts? I would need a decent amount of input to make the experiment successful or I might as well write it myself. It just seems that the comment stream found in articles are often as good (or better) than the articles themselves due to the knowledge and different opinions/strengths of the commentators.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.