Microsoft to acquire Nokia Corp, to pay $7.2 bn for its device business

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Microsoft is buying Nokia’s devices and services business, and getting access to the company’s patents, for a total of 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion) in an effort to expand its share of the smartphone market, the companies announced late Monday.

Microsoft will pay 3.79 billion euros ($5 billion) for the Nokia unit that makes mobile phones, including its line of Lumia smartphones that run Windows Phone software.

Microsoft is also paying 1.65 billion euros ($2.2 billion) for a 10-year license to use Nokia’s patents, with the option to extend it indefinitely.

“We are very excited about the proposal to bring the best mobile device efforts of Microsoft and Nokia together,” Microsoft CEOSteve Ballmer said in a memo to employees. “We are receiving incredible talent, technology and IP (intellectual property).”

Microsoft said it is acquiring Nokia’s Asha brand of low to mid-level smartphones and will license the Nokia brand for current Nokia mobile products.

“This element provides Microsoft with the opportunity to extend its service offerings to a far wider group around the world while allowing Nokia’s mobile phones to serve as an on-ramp to Windows Phone,” the companies said in a joint statement….

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