Almost one week after Nokia said it was beginning a strategic review of its digital health business, a leaked internal memo revealed company officials don't see a future in it, according to Reuters.
Nokia's digital health business, which includes activity trackers and smartwatches, has been around for roughly two years. The company has struggled to break into the competitive market, even after a 2016 acquisition of France's Withings, a consumer electronics company. After it introduced a smartwatch last year, it wrote down $137 million (141 million Euros) of goodwill on the business.
"Rather than only falling in love with our technology, we must be honest with ourselves. In its entirety, our digital health business has struggled to scale and meet its growth expectations," Nokia's Chief Strategy Officer Kathrin Buvac wrote in the letter to employees, according to Reuters.
"Currently, we don't see a path for it to become a meaningful part of a company as large as Nokia... Failing fast isn't failure, it is accelerated learning," she added.
A Nokia spokesperson declined Reuters' request for comment on the memo, but said: "We now need to see how the strategic review progresses — there is no pre-ordained outcome."
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