Microsoft’s Nokia Deal Really Cost $18B

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) agreed to buy the Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) smartphone business for just over $7 billion last weekend, but the deal has cost the company much more than that. The company's market share fell by about $18 billion from the end of the sale through yesterday's close.

What has gone wrong at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)? A deal that saw the company take on board $7 billion of assets should not have caused an $18 billion drop in value. The answer lies in the direction of the company's CEO Steve Ballmer, and the strange...