Microsoft has just announced that they are purchasing Nokia’s devices and services divisions. Nokia has been the main manufacturer of Windows Phone 8 devices, and it looks like Microsoft will be using this acquisition to further merge their software and hardware engineering and design.
In a joint statement from (outgoing) Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, the two executives stated, “Today’s agreement will accelerate the momentum of Nokia’s devices and services, bringing the world’s most innovative smartphones to more people, while continuing to connect the next billion people with Nokia’s mobile phone portfolio.”
This is not a complete takeover, as Nokia will still be its own entity with its own patent portfolio. However, Microsoft will be granted a “10-year license” to Nokia’s patents.
The purchase is expected to close the first quarter of 2014 and will net Nokia EUR 5.44 billion (~$7.1 billion).
Some interesting tidbits from the announcement:
- “At closing, approximately 32,000 people are expected to transfer to Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in manufacturing, assembly and packaging of products worldwide.”
- “Microsoft is acquiring Nokia’s Smart Devices business unit, including the Lumia brand and products.”
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Exciting!
Great and Right Move!
Keep throwing money at the problem, Microsoft… maybe that’ll make it go away.
If there’d be a problem, it would be the marketing department of Nokia. Not that I’d ever buy one because leaving the Apple ecosystem would be hard for me, but those Nokia phones are great alternatives for quite some people, especially the ones relying on Windows + MS services.
This is indeed exciting news, I hope MS will rebrand those phones and make them more consistent with the Surface products.
Agree with you. have an iPhone and planing to get a windows phone Probably Lumia 520 as a great second phone. microsoft and nokia did something really great. android was a biiiiiiiiiiiigggggggg copy from iOS, but win phone 8 is whole new world!
Right and smart move.
Think. Windows Phones are weak not because of HW but SW. To be specific, WP has too small number of apps. Developers are not confident with WP. The number of WP devices are dwindling. Someday, Nokia, the last WP vendor reamined, will abandon WP too, in favor of Google Andro something. This is the reason developers are not interested in building WP apps.
Now, MS acruiared Nokia, which means Nokia will never abandon WP. From no on, developers will pay attention to WP. More apps are coming to WP. WP will rise, though not much, but to be enough to take some portion of Android.
That scenario makes Apple, Google, MS the big 3.
How the mighty have fallen. Seven billion dollars isn’t much for the former world leader. Just a bit over the market cap of Blackberry, which appears to be in death throes.