M$ don't need to buy them - Elop has already transferred thousands of NOKIA's patents to patent trolls like Mosaid Technologies and Sisvel where they are now being exploited to the benefit of M$, i.e. M$ are getting a cut of the licensing fees for these patented technologies even though they contributed nothing and it has cost them nothing. No doubt Elop will continue with these transfers unless and until he is ousted.

Taking control of NOKIA's IPR was undoubtedly the biggest part of the master plan when M$ got their Trojan Horse through the gates, that and stopping NOKIA's support of open source - we all know M$ regard that as a 'cancer'.

Steal the patents, kill MeeGo, kill Symbian, kill Qt, kill the sponsoring of open source projects and if NOKIA gets killed in the process too? - well that's just a bonus.

NOKIA only bought Symbian and open sourced it to try to prevent M$ gaining too much influence in the mobile market, did they really think one of their arch-enemies was suddenly going to be their saviour?