The company posted a large loss for the second quarter of 2011 – only their second quarterly loss in

19 years.[100] Nokia's first Windows Phone flagship was the Lumia 800, which arrived in November
2011. Falling sales in 2011, which were not being improved significantly with the Lumia line in 2012,
led to consecutive quarters of huge losses. By mid-2012 the company's stock price fell below $2. [101]
[102]
CEO Elop announced cost-cutting measures in June by shedding 10,000 employees by the end
of the year and the closure of the Salo manufacturing plant.[103] The Finnish prime minister also
announced that the government wouldn't subsidize the company from an emergency state fund.
[104]
Around this time Nokia started a new project codenamed "Meltemi", a platform for low-end
smartphones.[105] With the Microsoft alliance and under Elop's management, Nokia also had a
renewed focus on the North American market where Nokia phones were, in stark contrast to the rest
of the world, almost irrelevant for many years.[106][107] This strategy began in January 2012 with the
introduction of the Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone in partnership with U.S. carrier AT&T.[108]
In March 2011, Nokia introduced a new corporate typeface called "Pure".[109] On 1 August 2011,
Nokia announced that it would adopt a new three-digit naming system for mobile phone products
and stop using letters, effectively ending the Nseries, Eseries, and short-lived Cseries. That same
day the Nokia 500 was introduced with the new system.[110] Nokia last used three-digit names on
analogue phones in the 1990s.[82]
When the Lumia 920 was announced in September 2012, it was seen by the press as the first high-
end Windows Phone that could challenge rivals due to its advanced feature set. Elop said that the
positive reaction to it had created a sense of hope and optimism in the company. [111] The company
was also making gains in developing countries with its Asha series, which were selling strongly.
[112]
Although Nokia's smartphone sales and market share greatly increased throughout 2013,
including in the North American market,[113] it was still not enough to avoid financial losses.[114] Ollila
stepped down as chairman on 4 May 2012 and was replaced by Risto Siilasmaa. [115]

Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia chairperson from 2012 to 2020

In September 2013, Nokia announced the sale of its mobile and devices division to Microsoft. The
sale was positive for Nokia to avoid further negative financial figures, as well as for Microsoft's
CEO Steve Ballmer, who wanted Microsoft to produce more hardware and turn it into a devices and
services company.[116] The Nokia chairperson, Risto Siilasmaa, described the deal as rationally
correct (in the best interests of Nokia shareholders), but emotionally difficult [117] – experts agree that
Nokia would have been in a cash crisis had it not sold the division to Microsoft. [118][117] Analysts believe
that Ballmer pushed for the buyout because of fears that Nokia was close to adopting Android and
abandoning their alliance with Microsoft.[119][120] Indeed, in January 2014 the Nokia X was introduced
which ran on a customised version of Android. It was a surprising and somewhat odd launch coming
just weeks away from the finalization of the Microsoft buyout.[121][122] Others, including Ballmer's
successor Satya Nadella, felt that Microsoft thought merging their software teams with Nokia's
hardware engineering and designs would "accelerate" growth of Windows Phone. [123] The sale was
completed in April 2014, with Microsoft Mobile becoming the successor to Nokia's mobile devices
division. Nokia also moved from its headquarters to another building complex located at Karaportti.
At the time, Ballmer himself was retiring as Microsoft CEO and was replaced by Satya Nadella, who
opposed the Nokia mobile phones purchase, along with chairman Bill Gates.[124] The purchased
assets from Nokia were eventually written-off by Microsoft in 2015.[125]
By 2014, Nokia's global brand value according to Interbrand fell to 98th place,[126] a sharp slide from
the 5th place it was in 2009.[127] Nokia's downfall in the mobile phone market has had different
explanations from analysts, with many split about the CEO's decision to abandon its in-house
operating system and adopting Windows Phone in 2011.[128] Many researchers have concluded that
Nokia suffered from deep internal rivalries within the management.[118][129][130][131] Former employees
claimed that the management became so swollen by the early success that they grew complacent
over time.[132][133] Some from the Symbian developing team have claimed that the company's upper
management rejected hundreds of potential innovations during the 2000s that they proposed,
including entirely rewriting Symbian's code. One former Nokia employee claimed that the company
was run as a "Soviet-style bureaucracy".[134]

Former Nokia plant in Bochum, Germany

A Nokia advertising sign in Dublin, Ireland

In July 2013, Nokia bought Siemens' stake in the Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture for $2.2
billion, turning it into a wholly owned subsidiary called Nokia Solutions and Networks, [135] until being
rebranded as Nokia Networks soon after.[136] During Nokia's financial struggles, its profitable
networking division with Siemens provided much of its income; thus, the purchase proved to be
positive, particularly after the sale of its mobile devices unit.[137]
2014–2016[edit]
After the sale of its mobile devices division, Nokia focused on network equipment through Nokia
Networks.[138]