After years of rumors about what former Microsoft executive and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop had in mind for the world’s most prominent Windows Phone brand, it’s official: Microsoft is buying Nokia’s Devices and Services division for 5.44 billion euros, or just over $ 7.7 billion.
The deal will give Microsoft control of Nokia’s smartphone manufacturing, and 32,000 people who worked for Nokia last week now work for Microsoft, pending the completion of the deal, which the companies said was expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.
Microsoft is getting a 10-year license to the Nokia brand, which it may or may not use on future Microsoft smartphones. After Microsoft unveiled plans to make its own tablet device last year, many people in the mobile industry figured it was only a matter of time before the company released its own branded smartphone. However, sales of Microsoft’s Surface tablets have been quite poor, forcing the company to take a $ 900 million write-down on unsold inventory last quarter.
(This story was updated frequently as more information became available.)
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