Microsoft-Nokia deal expected to close on April 25, 2014

Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset business is now expected to close by the end of this month. In a press release, Nokia today announced that they are expecting to close the sale of mobile device and services business to Microsoft on April 25th.

The deal was originally announced last year on September 3, in which Microsoft announced plans to buy the Nokia devices and services business for 5.4 billion euro. The deal will see around 32,000 Nokia employees go to Microsoft including 4,700 in Finland and 18,300 employed in manufacturing positions worldwide.

There are few adjustments made in the original deal, which are listed below:

• While the original deal did not address the management of online assets, our two companies have agreed that Microsoft will manage the nokia.com domain and social media sites for the benefit of both companies and our customers for up to a year.
• The original deal had all employees in Nokia’s Chief Technology Office continuing with Nokia. We’ve adjusted the agreement so the 21 employees in China working on mobile phones will join Microsoft and continue their work.
• The original deal had Microsoft acquiring Nokia’s Korean manufacturing facility. The agreement was adjusted and Microsoft will not acquire the facility.

Additionally Microsoft has reportedly been sending out letters to various companies to inform them of the imminent closing of the acquisition. One bit of information that has been leaked from these letters, is that Microsoft plans on renaming the Nokia handset business as Microsoft Mobile Oy.

Microsoft also sent out a letter to companies that Nokia Devices and Services does business with. The letter was sent to inform these firms that the terms and conditions that applied when Nokia owned the business, will remain the same once Microsoft takes over. Microsoft also let these companies know that some of them will probably remain suppliers to Nokia's remaining businesses (NSN, HERE or Advanced Technologies) and that the Finnish based company would probably correspond any new terms and conditions to them directly.

source - Nokia | Microsoft | NPU