Microsoft is buying Nokia’s smartphone and handset business. If you were wondering how much the deal is worth, we are speaking about $7.2 billion. With $5 billion Microsoft will buy Nokia’s Devices and Services unit. The rest of $2.2 billion are for the license of Nokia’s patents.
Considering the two companies have worked closely since Feb. 2011, in order to compete with Apple and Samsung, this is only a formality. Although the companies have a real success among people in Europe and other parts of the world, the Windows Phone should also advance in the U.S. market. You might not know this, but it has already surpassed the BlackBerry.
CEO Steve Ballmer has just stated last month that these will be his last 12 months before retiring. Keeping that in mind, the $7.2 billion deal is the second largest ever done, after the $9.3 billion one (in 2011 Microsoft bought Skype). Microsoft is trying to turn, slowly, into a device company, rather than a software one.
There are other parts to the agreement. One of those refers to Nokia CEO and President
Stephen Elop. He will no longer occupy this chair. Instead he will be the Nokia’s executive vice president of devices & services. After the close of the deal, he will return to Microsoft, leading a devices team and it will report directly to Steve Ballmer. The deal should be closed in the first months of 2014.
After this deal, Microsoft will be the one that controls the quality of their mobile devices. This is the reason they should be able to succeed where Nokia has failed. But will this happen? Or there is simply a problem with the Windows Phone?
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