Microsoft to Absorb Almost All of Nokia Corporation

The Boards of the global giants Microsoft and Nokia Corporation have announced the forthcoming merger of interests.

They scheduled a transaction, which will result in Microsoft to acquire production lines and services of Nokia, Nokia licenses owned patents and licenses owned by Nokia mapping services. Under the agreement, Microsoft will pay 3.79 billion euros for the unit for the production of gadgets and services, as well as 1.65 billion euros for the licensing of various patents Nokia. In total transaction value will be 5.44 billion euros or $ 7.17 billion.

According to experts, this means that the Finnish giant has resigned as leader in the market of "smart phones", behind the banner of direct competitors of Apple and Samsung. The deal is expected to be completed by April next year, when it was approved by shareholders of Nokia, regulators and others will be fulfilled the necessary conditions for closing the trade. An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Nokia, which will be considered an agreement with Microsoft, will take place this fall - 19 November.

A total of 23 thousand employees will depart Nokia for Microsoft in the world engaged in the production. Revenues of the units that Nokia will transfer to Microsoft made about 14.9 billion euros and formed half the company's sales last year.

The most notorious act was the news of the purchase of production of smart phones, including branded Lumia, running on the platform Windows Phone. Their sales in the II quarter of this year reached 7.4 million units, representing 4.3% of the global market.

In addition, Microsoft will acquire the production of mobile phones Nokia, with sales in the II quarter of 2013 53.7 million. Among them is the brand of Asha, under which produced low-cost phones.

At the same time, Nokia will not fully give up its brand. For example, it will give Microsoft a long-term licensing agreement with Qualcomm processor manufacturer and other licensing agreements. It will retain its own patent portfolio and give Microsoft a license to its patents for 10 years from the date of closing. Nokia's portfolio includes 38 thousand 500 patents for the development and design solutions.

Under the agreement, Microsoft also will make some concessions - Nokia will provide the right to use patents to Microsoft map service Nokia Here. Microsoft will become a strategic service licensee of Here and will separately pay Nokia for four-year license. Nokia itself will give Microsoft an opportunity to extend the patent agreement between the companies in perpetuity.

Microsoft will provide immediate funding for Nokia volume of 1.5 billion euros in three equal lots of convertible bonds that will not depend on the outcome and timing of closing the transaction.

Microsoft also announced that the new data center, which will serve European users of Microsoft, will be located in Finland. The company announced its intention to invest in its development and operation more than $ 250 million over the next few years.

By the way, the price of Nokia is lower than the price of Skype, for which Microsoft paid $ 8.5 billion so that Microsoft will now be an important player in the segment of production and sales of mobile devices. - 17D-