Now S&P downgrades Nokia stock to "junk"

A guy with some mental disorder who thinks he is some kind of spokesperson

Actually, it's only Nokia who's in the risk. Microsoft can only profit from this deal. Even if Microsoft's phone OS fails, Microsoft will still be perfectly OK with it's PC and tablet OS and other SW business they have. Deal with Nokia is just a perfect way to push WP and to sell it to hundreds of millions of Nokia traditional customers. === On the other hand, Nokia (thanks to Mr. Elop) lost its cash-cow Symbian and is in very dangerous position now. All because of this transition to WP. Remember, how Elop exagerated the problems Nokia had (burning memo platform), when he announced move to WP. Until then, Symbian sales were still rising (even if not so fast as iOS or Android), while marketshare was slowly declining (hell, even iPad's marketshare is declining now!). And most importantantly, Nokia was always in profits, until transition to WP has taken place.

Of course MS will be fine without Nokia: they have control over the entire PC market. However, Nokia is by far WP's largest manufacturer, and if Nokia goes down, I can't see any way WP can make up ground, especially with HTC and Samsung so focused on Android. Also, WP might be more important to Microsoft's future than it is to its present: it needs to prove that it can stay in the game with Apple and Google, not just rest on its laurels from the PC market. Sure, Microsoft is the dominant player in the PC market right now, but the consumer industry is changing rapidly towards iOS and Android-like interfaces and designs, and portable devices in general, and Microsoft needs to stay relevant, starting with Windows 8.

Dead right, commentator. Excellent post. And this is the reason why Microsoft will HAPPILY help keep Nokia afloat. They need them to create a complete ecosystem.