Nokia defends itself against invisible assailants - who has been a naughty boy?

Here’s a short but interesting story - Nokia has asserted that it will defend itself vigorously against a class-action complaint that was filed against it last Friday. Who are the accusers, and what is the case? Weeeeell…

… we don’t really know.

According to Nokia, the action was brought against it in the Southern District of New York. It is connected to statements that Nokia made about the production and sale of some of its mobile devices between the end of January and the start of September in 2008 - and it alleges securities fraud on the part of Nokia.

Nokia claims the accusation is without merit, and will be defending itself. The complainant is not named.

What we think?

My first thought was that this was something to do with the on-going patents battle between Nokia and Apple, but there are several reasons that can’t be true. First, it’s based in 2008 - and the Apple thing only started last year. Second, the case would probably have been filed in California if that were the case. And most importanyly, this is a securities fraud complaint - which really only applies when investors make decisions based on false or faulty information from the company they’ve invested in. So the accuser in this case is most likely a Nokia investor in New York.