As expected, Microsoft is now the proud owner of one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers. In September, 2013 Microsoft announced plans to buy Nokia for over $7 billion, and now the deal is done.

According to Nokia, the final price was a little higher than anticipated, but the upshot is that Microsoft now owns “substantially all” of Nokia’s Devices & Services business.

Nokia already makes and sells more smartphones running Windows Phone software than any other company. Now Microsoft has more control over the hardware that most people use to run the company’s mobile phone software.

nokia lumia 930

The entity formerly known as Nokia’s Devices & Services division is now expected to be called Microsoft Mobile.

There were a few regulatory roadbumps tot he deal. Nokia is retaining ownership of a manufacturing facility in India due to tax issues. But the company has an agreement to manufacture devices for Microsoft from that facility. There’s also a Korean plant which will be shut down rather than transferred to Microsoft.

Former Nokia CE Stephen Elop is moving to a leadership role at Microsoft. But he says that just because the Windows software maker now runs Nokia’s phone business doesn’t mean that the company is turning its back on Nokia’s non-Windows phones.

The company plans to continue to support feature phones as well as low-end smartphones including Nokia Asha handsets and the Nokia X family of Android-powered smartphones.

That’s not a promise that we’ll see new phones from Microsoft Mobile that don’t run Windows software. But hopefully existing customers will get a few years of support for their devices.

What’s less clear is whether Microsoft will be able to convince rival companies such as HTC and Samsung to continue producing Windows Phone devices that will compete directly with Microsoft’s own devices. While the company’s Surface line of Windows tablets doesn’t seem to have kept other companies from cranking out Windows tablets of their own, Microsoft doesn’t dominate the Windows tablet space the way it now dominates the Windows Phone market.

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3 replies on “Microsoft completes acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business”

  1. I’m confused. I thought Microsoft was buying all of Nokia. This sounds like they’re only buying part of it. Would someone be kind enough to explain this situation to me?

    1. MS only acquired Nokia’s Devices & Services division, which is responsible for making and selling of their phones, etc.

      But Nokia isn’t just a phone maker! They started out in other markets and still have parts that deal with telecommunication equipment and other things…

      So, it’s a bit like when IBM sold their Thinkpad devision to Lenovo… IBM still continued as a company but just no longer made Thinkpads…

      While Nokia basically downsized and now with the deal gone through they have about 7 Billion in capital to now decide where they want to take their business now… Though, they still got some support and links to MS through this deal as MS will continue to support their existing products, including none WP phones for at least the next ten years… So Nokia branded products won’t just
      disappear anytime soon…

      Also, Nokia has their services like Nokia Maps, etc that they still have control over and will continue to be their products!

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