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Microsoft Sheds Low-End Mobile Phone Business

Two years after Microsoft ( MSFT ) purchased Nokia ‘s ( NOK ) mobile phone unit, the software giant is moving to exit Nokia’s entry-level feature phone business. Microsoft announced Wednesday that it is selling the business for $350 million to FIH Mobile, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Foxconn, and HMD Global, a newly created company in Finland that has licensed Nokia’s brand and intellectual property . Microsoft said it will continue to develop Windows smartphones, such as its Lumia devices, and will continue to support third-party handsets from partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP Inc. ( HPQ ), Trinity and Vaio. Feature phones are low-end devices that have limited capabilities compared with full-fledged smartphones. Feature phones are targeted mostly at customers in emerging markets. Microsoft bought the Nokia handset business in April 2014 for $7.5 billion, a deal negotiated by Microsoft’s previous CEO, Steve Ballmer, in September 2013. Microsoft wrote off the entire value of the deal in July 2015 when it recorded an impairment charge of $7.6 billion related to the Nokia assets. “Microsoft’s exit from the feature phone business is not at all surprising,” IHS analysts Ian Fogg and Daniel Gleeson said in a research report Wednesday. “The deal again highlights Microsoft’s continued failure in mobile.” Microsoft’s smartphone future is “up in the air” because the company hasn’t released any new flagship handsets for Windows 10 Mobile in a while, they said. Microsoft shipped just 2.3 million smartphones in the first quarter, down 70% from Q1 2015, IHS said. “Realistically Microsoft can hope to be no more than a bit player in the mobile phone market now,” Fogg and Gleeson said. The smartphone market is dominated by Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone and Android-based devices from Samsung and others. Microsoft stock was up a fraction in morning trading in the stock market today , near 51, but trading below its 50-day line since its earnings release late last month disappointed.

Does Analog Devices’ Soft Q3 Guidance Prove Apple’s iPhone 7 Cut?

Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone 7 expectations might have dug into guidance provided Wednesday by  Analog Devices ( ADI ), as the 3D Touch supplier topped Q2 expectations but guided to current-quarter sales that would dip 5% year over year. In early trading on the stock market today , Analog Devices shares were up a fraction, near 55.50. Fellow Apple suppliers Broadcom ( AVGO ), NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ),  Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) and  Qorvo ( QRVO ) were up all by close to 2% or more. For its fiscal Q2 ended April 30, Analog Devices reported $779 million in sales and 64 cents earnings per share ex items, down a respective 5% and 12% vs. the year-earlier quarter. It was the first quarter in nine that Analog Devices’ sales have fallen and the second period of declining EPS. But both metrics beat the consensus of 29 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $777.6 million and 62 cents, as well as Analog Devices’ own guidance issued three months ago. Consumer sales toppled 27% year over year, leading a 3% fall in communications sales, Analog Devices said. Industrial and automotive sales — Analog Devices’ bread-and-butter segments — fell 1% apiece. For fiscal Q3, Analog Devices CEO Vincent Roche sees a return to consumer market growth and mid- to high-single-digit growth in the company’s business-to-business segments. But the high point of ADI’s Q3 sales and EPS guidance lagged Wall Street consensus. Analog Devices guided to $800 million to $840 million in sales and 66-74 cents, down a respective 5% and 9% vs. the year-earlier quarter, missing analysts’ model for $846.6 million and 75 cents. On average, Analog Devices’ Q3 sales have grown 13.5% year over year, trailing 20% growth in Q4. But recent reports indicate Apple might have cut its component orders for the iPhone 7, expected to be released in September.