Microsoft Acquires Nokia
INTRODUCTION
Microsoft is to acquire Nokia 's mobile phone arm in a swansong deal for the software giant 's long-serving chief executive, Steve Ballmer, delivering Europe 's last big handset maker into American ownership.
For €5.44bn (£4.6bn), Nokia is casting off the business that once represented Finland 's most important export, in a deal that will result in 32,000 staff transferring to Microsoft.
Overtaken in the smartphone arena by Apple and Samsung, Nokia 's board agreed to end the company 's decades-long role as a pioneer and once-dominant player in one of the most revolutionary technologies in modern history.
The acquisition marks the boldest step yet taken by Microsoft in its recently announced strategy of moving decisively into the device-manufacturing business, so that it can design for the software and hardware of its products. It is a move Ballmer hopes will bring the kind of success currently being enjoyed by Apple.
Nokia has staked a claim to a growing but small share of the smartphone market, with 7.4m of its Lumia handsets shipped in the most recent quarter. Samsung shipped 71m smartphones in the second quarter, according to Gartner, and Nokia is no longer among the global top five.
RELEVANCE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft: According to the article, Elop, who formerly headed Microsoft 's business services unit, intertwined Nokia 's fortunes with Microsoft two years ago when he announced he would abandon the Finnish company 's attempts at creating its own smartphone software, opting instead for the Windows Phone operating system.
Microsoft heavily subsidised Nokia 's strategy, providing hundreds of millions in marketing dollars per quarter to support the significant advertising spend needed to tempt customers unfamiliar with the Windows Phone interface.
As head of Microsoft 's devices unit, Elop will oversee not only phones but its best selling Xbox games console and its Surface tablet computer,
Microsoft is to acquire Nokia 's mobile phone arm in a swansong deal for the software giant 's long-serving chief executive, Steve Ballmer, delivering Europe 's last big handset maker into American ownership.
For €5.44bn (£4.6bn), Nokia is casting off the business that once represented Finland 's most important export, in a deal that will result in 32,000 staff transferring to Microsoft.
Overtaken in the smartphone arena by Apple and Samsung, Nokia 's board agreed to end the company 's decades-long role as a pioneer and once-dominant player in one of the most revolutionary technologies in modern history.
The acquisition marks the boldest step yet taken by Microsoft in its recently announced strategy of moving decisively into the device-manufacturing business, so that it can design for the software and hardware of its products. It is a move Ballmer hopes will bring the kind of success currently being enjoyed by Apple.
Nokia has staked a claim to a growing but small share of the smartphone market, with 7.4m of its Lumia handsets shipped in the most recent quarter. Samsung shipped 71m smartphones in the second quarter, according to Gartner, and Nokia is no longer among the global top five.
RELEVANCE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft: According to the article, Elop, who formerly headed Microsoft 's business services unit, intertwined Nokia 's fortunes with Microsoft two years ago when he announced he would abandon the Finnish company 's attempts at creating its own smartphone software, opting instead for the Windows Phone operating system.
Microsoft heavily subsidised Nokia 's strategy, providing hundreds of millions in marketing dollars per quarter to support the significant advertising spend needed to tempt customers unfamiliar with the Windows Phone interface.
As head of Microsoft 's devices unit, Elop will oversee not only phones but its best selling Xbox games console and its Surface tablet computer,