Nokia Looks to Sell Off Luxury Brand Vertu

Vertu is, some would say, notorious in the market for making phones and similar devices that take the concept of ostentation and elevate it beyond all limits. But its parent company, Nokia, may be looking to sell the brand off, and they've got some potentially interested buyers.

Sources familiar with Nokia's strategy said that the Vertu brand was up for sale, and that one buyer in particular was fairly close to making a formal deal. That buyer is the Permira private equity group, and reports suggest the value of the sale would be around 200 million Euros ($265 million).

Other reports indicated the EQT private equity group was also interested, but that the talks between EQT and Nokia hadn't progressed nearly as far as those of Nokia and Permira.

Nokia had, at last report, planned the sale of Vertu as far back as December, and had been looking to eliminate "non-core assets" in recent days, capitalized by Standard & Poor's recent cut to Nokia's credit rating.

Vertu, meanwhile, has its specialty is in gold and jewels, and it's not easy to find a phone from Vertu without the word "Swarovski" being involved, so calling it "non-core" isn't a stretch.

One Vertu device, the Signature, contains nearly five carats of ruby bearings just in the keypad, and many other phones include even more exotic fixings. Vertu was also well-regarded for its "dedicated lifestyle manager" program, offering access to 24/7 tech support for any issue a user may have incurred with their phone. Some phones sold for as much as $320,000 each.

The outcome of these talks is as yet uncertain, but it's a fair bet at this stage that Nokia will be selling off Vertu to somebody fairly soon. Considering Nokia's recent realignment, layoffs and move to Windows Phone, it's not surprising that they're looking to divest and slim down, giving them a better cash flow to work from while they try to get themselves in a better position to compete with the Android lineup – and, of course, Apple's iPhone.

Whether or not this will work for them remains to be seen, but the more competitors in a market, the better. And keeping Nokia in the fray should improve the market for everybody.