Microsoft-Nokia Deal to be Delayed by a Month

Nokia Corp announced that its deal with Microsoft that was worth $7.2 billion will be delayed by over a month because of regulatory approvals, which are still pending from some antitrust authorities in Asia. The Finnish handset maker said that the deal would now be finalized in April. The company also said that the timing of the deal would not be affected by the proceedings of the various tax cases that it is facing in India. It was last September when the handset maker made the announcement that it would be selling a substantial part of its services and devices business, including the ones in India to the software maker by March 2014.

According to a statement that was made by Nokia, the transaction would now be completed in April and will involve the sale of all of the D&S business and licensing of its patents to Microsoft Corp. The Finnish handset market added that both companies are still committed to the deal. The statement also mentioned that most of the required regulatory approvals have been received by the company including the clearances from the US Department of Justice and the European Commission. However, there are some Asian antitrust authorities that are still doing their reviews and haven’t given the proper regulatory approvals.

The handset giant expressed complete confidence in the deal and said that deal will come to a close, meaning that all of its D&S business will be sold to Microsoft Corp. The company said that it also believes that there would be no change in the timing or the material of the deal because of the tax proceedings that are being carried out against Nokia in India. Microsoft Corp also made a statement, in which the company said that when the deal comes to a close, it would be the first step to bringing Nokia and Microsoft’s devices and services business together.

Brad Smith, the General Counsel of Microsoft and Executive VP said that the companies have entered the final stages of the regulatory approval process over the globe. From 5 continents, regulatory authorities in about 15 markets have given their approvals and approval from the final markets is now left. He said that this process has also been progressing and will be finished by the end of next month. He added that the cloud-first and mobile-first imperatives will be accelerated by the acquisition because the company wishes to boost market adoption and innovation for Windows Phone.

They intend to do so by making use of Nokia mobile phones for introducing Microsoft’s services to billions of customers. Nokia, on the other hand, seems to be suffering from setbacks as a tax demand of RS 2400 crore was slapped on it by the Tamil Nadu government concerning the sale of devices that were manufactured in the Chennai factory. The claims have been challenged by Nokia and it has taken the matter to court. This Chennai plant is also a part of the deal made by the company with Microsoft. 

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