Q. I am disappointed with the performance of my Nokia Corp. shares this year. Will they be doing any better? -- L.H.

A. The world's largest maker of mobile phones recently signed a major deal that could boost its lagging U.S. sales.

It signed a 15-year licensing deal with chipmaker Qualcomm Inc., settling a costly legal dispute that had made U.S. phone carriers postpone their dealings with Nokia. Although Nokia will pay a lump sum and ongoing royalties for advanced mobile patents such as 3G technology, the amount is lower than Qualcomm previously sought.

"It's a big relief for everybody," said Rick Simonson, chief financial officer for Nokia, which also signed over some of its own technologies to Qualcomm.

And the Finnish company completed its $8.1 billion acquisition of U.S. digital mapmaker Navteq Corp. last month.

In addition, it is buying the 52 percent of shares it doesn't already own in London-based Symbian, the leading maker of operating system software for advanced phones. It intends to create an open-source foundation to give software to other handset manufacturers to increase overall market use of advanced products.

Shares of Nokia (NOK) are down 34 percent this year following last year's 89 percent gain, in part because investors feared the credit crunch and inflation would hurt the company. But Simonson said consumers haven't been cutting back on communication.

The company, which increased its global market share to 40 percent during the second quarter from 38 percent a year earlier, expects sales volumes to grow by 10 percent or more this year. Unit growth is up significantly in Asia and Latin America, but flat elsewhere. In the U.S., Nokia ranks fifth in handset sales.

Consensus analyst rating on Nokia stock is "buy," according to Thomson Financial, consisting of eight "strong buys," seven "buys" and six "holds."

Nokia faces competition from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc., Japanese/Swedish Sony Ericsson, Sweden's LM Ericsson, Canada's Research In Motion Ltd. and Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc.

The declining price of handsets has squeezed its profit margins. The average price for a Nokia handset in the second quarter was $117, down from $143 a year ago.

For its coming "Comes with Music" service to be built into its handsets, Nokia has signed up Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, with ongoing negotiations to add additional record labels.

Earnings are expected to increase 24 percent this year and 8 percent next year. Five-year annualized growth rate is projected to be 13 percent.

Q. I thought Bill Miller was supposed to be a genius. What happened to Legg Mason Value Trust fund? -- M.B., via the Internet

A. Fifteen consecutive years of outperforming the Standard & Poor's 500 ended abruptly after 2005, and the well-known fund hit the wall.

It was stuck with a concentrated portfolio that included a big stake in financial stocks such as Freddie Mac, Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. It also owned homebuilders, some disappointing technology plays and no energy stocks.

Investors noticed the tanking results. A combination of withdrawals and declining value knocked this fund's total assets from $17 billion at the start of this year to less than $10 billion. Continued...