The Microsoft and Nokia deal has already been approved by Nokia’s shareholders, and European regulators, and now the buyout of Nokia’s smartphone business by Microsoft has been approved by US regulators.
The Federal Trade Commission in the US has now approved the deal between the two companies, which is worth a total of $7.3 billion to Nokia.
Nokia will sell its mobile and services division to Microsoft, this will give Microsoft control of Nokia’s Lumia smartphone brand and everything that goes with it.
Nokia and Microsoft have also agreed a patent licensing deal for the next 10 years, and Nokia will no longer produce smartphones, although the company will be able to release feature phones in the future.
Nokia has done well this year with their Lumia Windows Phone smartphones, with sales of the handsets said to make up around 90 percent of all Windows Phone handset sales.
It does make us wonder if Nokia had continued on without selling out to Microsoft, if the company would become popular in the smartphone arena once again.
Nokia used to be the worlds top mobile phone maker, until Apple released the iPhone in 2007, after that we saw Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android powered smartphones take the top spot of the mobile phone market from Nokia.
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can continue the success of the Lumia brand for Windows Phone devices when the take over control of Nokia’s mobile phone business next year.
Source Reuters
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