Microsoft is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business and patents for €5.44bn ($7.2bn) in an all-cash deal that will reshape the telecoms industry on two continents.
The US company will pay €3.79bn for “substantially all” of Nokia’s phone unit and €1.65bn to licence its patents, in a big bet from Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s outgoing chief executive, that the Finnish group’s mobile devices can rival those of Apple and Samsung Electronics.
The deal means Nokia becomes a telecoms equipment company, marking the latest dramatic change in its 148-year history. It ends a 30-year rollercoaster ride with phones that saw the group become the world’s biggest manufacturer of mobiles but also come close to financial ruin several times because of them.
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