The $7.2 billion deal Microsoft-Nokia deal has undergone several changes. The deal will be closed on Friday, 25 April.
Both Microsoft and Nokia made three changes to the original deal.
First, Microsoft will not acquire Nokia’s Korean manufacturing facility. The original deal had Microsoft acquiring Nokia’s Korean manufacturing facility..
Second, Microsoft will manage Nokia.com and Nokia social media sites for up to a year. The original deal did not address the management of online assets.
Third, 21 Chinese employees of Nokia’s Chief Technology Office will join Microsoft.
The new deal does not talk about Nokia’s manufacturing facility in Chennai, India, and its 6,000 plus workforce. It also does not reflect Nokia’s tax obligations in India.
Chinese government approval provided two weeks ago ended the last major regulatory hurdle for the deal, which was originally set to close in March.
Nokia stands to reap a $7.2 billion cash windfall.
Microsoft earlier announced that Stephen Elop (in pix) will be heading the smartphone business at the IT giant.
Analysts say Microsoft will have to get to work on turning around a business that posted a 29 percent year-on-year sales drop in large part due to plunging feature phone sales.
Nokia today announced that it expects the transaction whereby the company will sell substantially all of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft to close on April 25, 2014. The transaction is now subject only to certain customary closing conditions.
The transaction was originally announced on September 3, 2013.
Brad Smith, general counsel & executive vice president, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft, in a blog post said the completion of this acquisition follows several months of planning and will mark a key step on the journey towards integration. This acquisition will help Microsoft accelerate innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones.
Canalys in a research note in January 2014 said Microsoft Windows Phone saw a percentage point share rise to 3 percent as shipments increased 90 percent in 2013 to 32.1 million, driven by Nokia’s Lumia devices, and putting it ahead of BlackBerry, at 19.8 million.
In OS terms, Windows Phone saw the fastest year-on-year growth among the major platforms, at 69 percent, despite a sequential decline of 6 percent from Q3 2013. This compares with Google Android shipments, which rose 54 percent and iOS shipments, which grew 7 percent.
Canalys Analyst Jingwen Wang earlier said that Microsoft needs to do more if it wants to grab more share of the smart phone market, not least driving the platform down to new entry-level price points, delivering innovation and new features, particularly at the high-end, and pro-actively working with, supporting and encouraging developers to commit to building compelling apps, and bring its app story closer to parity with its competitors.
Pix source: NDTV
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