Nokia finally gives up the blow. The historic Finnish mobile phone maker, king of the 90s boom but then slowly fell out of favor despite recent attempts to relaunch, has just sold its telephony business to the US giant Microsoft for the total amount of 7,2 billion dollars (about 5,4 billion euros, of which 1,65 billion for the use of patents).
In the aftermath of Vodafone Verizon another operation, though incomparable in size, shakes the universe of telecommunications and once again pleases the markets: Nokia shares revved up in Helsinki, up almost 50% (while for example Stmicroelectronics flies to Piazza Affari, which has Nokia among its main customers, around +4%) after the announcement of an agreement that will revolutionize the mobile telephony market.
In fact, if the partnership with Microsoft had already begun in 2011 with the supply of the operating system for the latest Finnish smartphone, the Lumia, this time well half of the Scandinavian company's turnover, or about 15 billion euros, will end up under the stars and stripes flag. And the same fate will befall the 32 thousand and more Nokia employees, of which almost 5 thousand in Finland alone, who will all pass under the aegis of Microsoft.
Moreover, the important operation (which will be ratified in the first quarter of 2014, according to the agreements) takes place at a particular moment for the American giant, which in a few months will lose its historic boss, Steve Ballmer, who has objectively failed in the furniture game leaving more and more ground to Samsung, Apple and Google. Ironically, the current CEO of Nokia is also about to be dismissed, Canadian Stephen Elop, who in turn moved from Microsoft to Nokia in 2010 and will now be Finnish Siilasma's deputy. However, it is rumored that once the operation is completed he will take over from Ballmer as head of the new mobile telephony giant.
