Nokia’s maps are not only powered by C3 technologies, the same company that Apple purchased back in October, but they also behave almost identically to what you’ll find in iOS 6, offering the exact same controls, except without the multi-touch support. The maps even render in the same fashion as they do on iOS.
To run these 3D maps on your own computer, all you’ll need to do is install a small, 8.4MB maps plugin. On the maps page, just roll over the “map view” menu on the right hand side of the screen, and select “Get Maps 3D.” You will be guided to a page where you can download the plugin, assuming you are using a supported browser.
Are Nokia and RIM Headed for Ruin? - Yahoo Finance
In an announcement falling somewhere between a suicide note and an expression of optimism for the future Finnish cell-phone has-been, Nokia (NOK) announced yesterday that it would be laying off 10,000 employees between now and the end of 2013. Obviously the negative part was the plan to lay-off nearly 20% of its existing work-force. The upside was that Nokia seems to truly believe the company will exist as a freestanding concern in 18 months.
Unwilling to see the glass as anything but half-empty, Wall Street sent NOK shares down 16% Wednesday. Nokia shareholders should be used to such pain by now, the stock is down over 50% just in 2012 and a stunning 91% since the release of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone.
Nokia's not alone in its suffering. Fellow fallen idol Research-in-Motion (RIMM) also warned recently, citing... well, let's be honest, it doesn't matter what RIMM cited. The company is in trouble and there seems little on the horizon likely to stop the decline.
The question for those inclined towards catching falling knives is whether or not NOK and RIMM have finally reached the point at which the intrinsic value of their assets exceeds the value of their shares. In other words, are either Nokia or RIMM "value buys." To explore the idea Breakout welcomed Jon Najarian, kingpin of OptionMonster.com and former RIMM shareholder.
To say Najarian is a former "shareholder" of RIMM is actually a wild overstatement. What the former options pit trader actually did was trade RIMM at the beginning of 2012, buying in the teens with the idea that the company could be a potential take over candidate in the low 20's. The stock popped, Najarian sold and RIMM has dropped like a stone ever since, falling nearly 30% in since January 1 and a mind-blowing 70% over the last year.
As Najarian would be the first to tell you, a little luck never hurts when trading. He would still consider both Nokia and RIMM as part of a "fallen angel" basket, but not in much size. Both companies have large patent portfolios, a fact that makes them compelling to would-be buyers. The problem with that as an investment thesis is that Nokia and Research in Motion seem determined to continue operations, reducing their cash flows and delaying any sale. Like boxers and and an opened can of soda, patent portfolios don't become more valuable with the passage of time.
For those inclined to play, Najarian suggests owning the common but writing call options aggressively against the position.
It's not a stirring vote of confidence but it's about as bullish a view as you're likely to hear about RIMM or NOK from anyone on Wall Street. A never-ending series of profit warnings tends to shake the confidence of even the most bullish analysts.
Vodafone's small, controversial tax bill validated by UK.gov - The Register
The National Audit Office, asked to look into Vodafone's negotiated tax bill of £1.25bn, has decided it was a reasonable deal considering the cost of taking legal action against the company.
Back in 2010 Vodafone was accused of owing £6bn in tax, and the company had reserved £2.2bn to meet it's UK tax obligations, but George Osborne struck a deal to accept £1.25bn. That sparked national protests, and in December last year the Audit Office was asked to take a look at five deals including the one struck with Vodafone. It has now concluded that all were perfectly reasonable.
The report (pdf, surprisingly readable, but still very dull) doesn't name the companies, but Vodafone admits to being "Company D" whose deal is criticised as breaking the Treasury Department's own guidelines though it concludes that this is because the guidelines themselves aren't very good.
"Litigation and Settlement Strategy" lays out how the 'Department negotiates deals, and specifically prohibits "split the difference" deals where the liability party is asked to pay a mid point between the maximum liability and the minimum. In Vodafone's case that minimum was zero, as the company claimed it owed nothing at all:
"The agreed settlement ... was lower than the tax liability that would have been paid if the Department won in litigation. Given the uncertainties and costs of litigation, it was reasonable for the Department to settle at the amount it did" says the report. Later Sir Andrew Park, consultant to the NAO, went further:
"Sir Andrew Park considered that there may have been a sense in which the settlement [with Vodafone] could be characterised as ‘splitting the difference’, but his view is that, if this is the case, it is the strategy that is at fault rather than the settlement."
So if the guidelines were broken then it's because they aren't very good guidelines, obviously.
Vodafone, of course, can barely conceal its glee at the report:
For more than a year, Vodafone has been falsely accused of improper conduct ... the National Audit Office has now concluded that the outcome was good for the UK taxpayer. We welcome this vindication.
Not only that, but Vodafone points out that in addition to paying its legally-mandated tax it also handed £6.7bn to shareholders this year to the benefit of the UK economy - if you're not a shareholder then you only have yourself to blame.
All large companies avoid paying tax, if they didn't then we could have much lower tax rates for ourselves, but the tricks being applied are getting increasingly complicated - to the point where it's almost impossible for tax offices, let alone ordinary citizens, to understand who must pay what. A recent investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, working with Private Eye magazine, found a Vodafone office in Switzerland staffed by one part-time employee who admitted he didn't go into the Vodafone room very often.
None of this is illegal, and neither, it seems, was Vodafone's deal with the Revenue: repugnant as that might all be to those of without barely staffed international offices in tax havens. ®
Vodafone in the clear for UK tax bill - Computer Weekly
The National Audit Office (NAO) today ruled that Vodafone’s settlement of its UK tax bill was "reasonable", despite being almost £5bn less than it was originally thought to have owed.
The mobile operator came under scrutiny when critics claimed it owed £6bn in tax which it had avoided by having a one-man staff in a tax haven office based out of Luxembourg.
Despite going through the courts and Vodafone being ruled to owe the money to HMRC, it came to an arrangement with the treasury, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, to pay £1.25bn to settle the dispute – even less than the £2.2bn it admitted to keeping to one side for payment to the tax office.
This led to even more uproar, and a number of protests broke out across Britain, led by campaign group UK Uncut.
The NAO was asked to investigate the case in December last year, along with four other similar deals the treasury had struck, to make a conclusion over the validity of the deals and try to put an end to the controversy.
The investigation was carried out by former High Court tax judge Sir Andrew Park, whose report released today said the conclusion of all five cases was rational, but the process of reaching the deals needed to be re-examined.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "On the basis of Sir Andrew Park’s reports, I conclude that the settlements reached by HMRC in these five cases were all reasonable. Moreover, in settling them, the department successfully resolved multiple, long-outstanding tax issues.
"However, our concerns over the processes by which the settlements were reached have been confirmed. It was not appropriate to set up governance arrangements specific to certain cases or to fail to apply processes correctly. Poor communication with staff also undermined confidence in the settlements."
Vodafone's chief financial officer, Andy Halford, praised the decision by the NAO, and said the company welcomed the vindication.
"For more than a year, Vodafone has been falsely accused of improper conduct," he said. "As we have consistently stated, those attacks were unwarranted and unjust. We acted with the utmost propriety throughout the HMRC settlement process, and the National Audit Office has now concluded that the outcome was good for the UK taxpayer.”
The company is not out of the woods yet, however, as this week it was revealed Vodafone had not paid any corporation tax in the UK during 2011.
The company followed legal processes by offsetting its capital expenditure against the tax bill, bringing the owed amount down to zero, but it has still received criticism, having made £1.3bn from its UK operations last year.
Sandra Hughes, member of UK Uncut – which led protests in 2010 against Vodafone – said the telecoms firm needed to start paying tax and help the country in times of austerity.
“There is an alternative to the government’s cuts – make big businesses pay their fair share of tax,” she said. “Mega-rich businesses must contribute more so that we can fund and keep open our libraries, hospitals and local services, and provide welfare for all.”
Nokia Debt Rating Is Reduced One Step to Junk Status at Moody’s - Businessweek
Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)’s debt rating was cut to junk at Moody’s Investors Service, the last of the three major credit-rating services to hold it at investment grade, after the Finnish mobile-phone maker said handset losses would increase.
The senior debt rating was reduced by one step to Ba1, the highest non-investment grade, with a negative outlook, Moody’s said in a statement today. The Espoo, Finland-based company had total debt of 4.92 billion euros ($6.2 billion) at March 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Nokia’s restructuring plan “delineates a scale of earnings pressure and cash consumption that is larger than we had previously assumed,” Wolfgang Draack, a senior vice president at Moody’s said in the statement.
Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop announced a restructuring plan including as many as 10,000 job cuts on June 14 and said the company would report a second-quarter operating loss in handsets of more than 3 percent of sales. The cuts are sufficient to keep the company from running out of cash while leaving it with assets for growth, he said.
Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings cut Nokia in April to BB+, their highest junk grade, with a negative outlook.
Elop’s shift to using Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT)’s Windows Phone operating system hasn’t stopped Nokia losing smartphone market share to Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL)’s iPhone and handsets with Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG)’s Android software. Nokia smartphone shipments fell 51 percent in the first quarter while low-end phone shipments tumbled 16 percent. Competition in the third quarter will be tough as well, Elop said.
“We believe we have the net cash needed to manage through this transition and the scope of today’s changes is designed to ensure this remains true,” he said June 14 on a conference call about the restructuring plan.
Nokia’s net cash and other liquid assets shrank to 4.9 billion euros at the end of the first quarter, from 5.6 billion euros at the close of 2011 and 6.4 billion euros at the end of March 2011. The company said it expects to book 1.25 billion euros in cash outflows for its restructuring programs from the second quarter through the end of 2013.
To contact the reporter on this story: Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at dbenaaron1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
Nokia to Cut 3,700 Jobs in Finland - CRIENGLISH.com
Nokia's debt downgraded to junk status - CNET News
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop at last year's Nokia World.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Just when you thought it couldn't get worse for Nokia, Moody's steps in with a downgrade of its debt rating.
Moody's lowered its rating to junk status, citing earnings pressure and cash burn that is larger than the firm previously expected. The move comes after Nokia said yesterday that it would cut 10,000 jobs and warned its second-quarter financial result would again disappoint investors.
The downgrade is just the latest blow for Nokia, which is quickly seeing its prospects dim. A lower rating means it will cost more to issue debt, and the company will have a hard time refinancing its existing debt at favorable terms.
Despite several high-profile launches of phones such as the Lumia 800 abroad and the Lumia 900 here in the U.S., the company has failed to make a real splash. While the phones have sold well, they haven't made much of a dent in the dominance of Apple's iPhone or Android smartphones.
Despite the downgrade, Moody's said it applauded the move to restructure the business to cut costs and return to profitability. But the future will depend on a successful transition to Windows Phone and a stabilization of its basic phone business, and so far that remains unclear.
Much is riding on Nokia's use of the next version of Windows Phone, which is expected to be more tightly integrated with Microsoft's Windows 8 desktop and tablet software.
Moody's downgraded Nokia's long-term debt to Ba1 from Baa3 and its short-term debt to Not-Prime from Prime 3. The outlook on the firm's ratings remains negative.
CNET contacted Nokia for comment. We'll update the story when we get a response.
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