July 2014 – July 2015
Microsoft's Nokia writedown (2014-2015)
Microsoft bought Nokia's phone business for about $7.2 billion in 2014. Within a year it wrote off roughly $7.6 billion, more than it paid, and cut thousands of jobs across the unit.
Then
Microsoft announced up to 7,800 phone-related job cuts and effectively exited the handset market.
Now
The episode became a case study in a big acquisition that failed to fit and was unwound within a few years.
Why this matters now
It shows Microsoft's willingness to reverse a costly acquisition fast when the numbers do not work, which is what the studio sales now echo.