OT - NOK - I suppose I'm like a lot of folks - I find it hard to understand well enough the news that led to NOK's decline of 7% today. Yes, the missing of benchmarks was a nasty surprise. But JP Morgan reiterated a 'buy' on it. But I find mgmt's statements puzzling. Raji and Co. seems (I may be wrong) to have said that, in the short term, expect things to miss most benchmark targets. And Alcatel Lucent integration is costing them in the short term as they figure out how to integrate it (I thought that was supposed to be a fairly unalloyed positive.) But that in the longer term, they're as good as gold. Except that one prominent item in the stories I've read is that the longer-term bright future pronouncement is based on hazy, low transparency (or no indication) figures and facts given (or missing). In short, if you thought INFN's mgmt. was being vague about what to base estimates on, NOK was a lot worse in this area - including one exec citing a figure to support claims of a bright future, but saying 'don't use that' when figuring future growth.

I may have some of the particulars wrong, but a surprise miss, with a negative short-term outlook by mgmt., and lack of specifics on the long-term growth story seems to have crushed the stock today.

The question, of course, is whether this is a buying opp or a nasty surprise that should signal caution. I'd like to be able to see it as a buying opp, even though this apparently was a complete negative surprise, and transparency is minimal. The 2.25% dividend at this price is also attractive (taking into account that European stocks take about 25% of the dividend in taxes, before it gets taxed by the US, and the dividend is of course not guaranteed.) But the stock is off 25% since the beginning of the year. And one thing that seems consistent across companies is that the tight capex spending is a heavy negative. I have wondered for some time whether, in such a capex-poor environment, 'price wars' break out to keep marketshare, which is bad for all companies in the sector.