Sure, let’s spend the last moments of Labor Day digging through press releases, Yay! Late Monday, Microsoft announced that it is purchasing Nokia’s Devices and Services business for some $ 7.17 Billion (US), in a deal expected to close in the first quarter of next year. The high points:
- Microsoft is paying just under $ 5 Billion for Nokia’s Devices and Services
- …and another $ 2.17 Billion for a ten year license on Nokia’s mobile patents
- The combined $ 7.17 Billion is all offshore cash, meaning Microsoft can leverage its offshore money without paying a substantial tax penalty for trying to bring the money back into the US
- Microsoft gets a big chunk of Nokia’s executive team as part of the deal, including Stephen “Trojan Horse” Elop
- Microsoft acquires “rights equivalent to ownership” to HERE maps apps for Windows Phone, although Nokia can continue to develop apps for other platforms.
- The agreement broadens Microsoft and Nokia’s partnership in utilizing the HERE location services
- Microsoft is acquiring the Mobile Phones business (read: dumbphones) as well as the Smart Devices business, and plans to push forward with “the opportunity to extend its service offerings to a far wider group around the world while allowing Nokia’s mobile phones to serve as an on-ramp to Windows Phone”.
- Microsoft is getting licensing deals on a huge chunk of a patent portfolio, too. Don’t discount this, as Microsoft may be planning to get even more serious about pursuing its intellectual property rights.
What sticks out to you in the proposed Microsoft – Nokia deal?