At $10 billion, Xiaomi is valued double than Nokia

This might comes as a big shock but Chinese smartphone vendor, Xiaomi, is valued twice as much as Nokia’s devices and services business. Xiaomi, which started selling smartphones in China in 2011 was valued at $10 billion in the latest funding round. In contrast, Microsoft paid $5 billion for Nokia’s handset business and another $2.17 billion for licensing Nokia’s patents. Microsoft not only got Nokia’s 32,000 employes including its design team but also a well-oiled global sales and distribution network as well as phone manufacturing facilities. Xiaomi, on the other hand, doesn’t own any manufacturing facilities of its own and sells its phones in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan only. Nokia sold over 61 million phones including 7.4 million Lumias in the last quarter alone whereas Xiaomi is looking at selling 20 million smartphones this year.

Xiaomi’s valuation might not appear sound on paper, investors are betting on the opportunity the company has and its recent performance. The vendor recently sold out of 100,000 units of its latest smartphone in under 90 seconds and got more than 7 million pre-orders. This is in China alone. Xiaomi last week hired Google’s Hugo Barra to look after its international operations.

Nokia, on the other hand, was seen as a struggling brand, attempting to reclaim its glory days only running out of breath at the end. More than Google’s acquisition of Motorola, it is Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset business that marks the end of the old guard in the smartphone space.