Microsoft has taken another $1bn hit on its disastrous acquisition of Nokia’s devices business, and will lay off a further 1,850 employees (three-quarters in the mobile division). But CEO Satya Nadella – never a fan of the Nokia deal – inexplicably continues to cling on to a smartphone hardware business. Microsoft will take a charge of about $750m against its phone business earnings in its second quarter, and is setting aside another $200m to cover severance payments. These charges bring the total bill for the writedown of the Nokia acquisition to almost $11bn, and analyst Jack Gold, of J Gold Associates, says the real sum is far higher. “It goes back much further than Nokia,” he said in an interview.…