Microsoft made it official today, in a blog post on the Official Microsoft Blog by General Counsel Brad Smith, and will be completing the acquisition and “officially welcome the Nokia Devices and Services business as part of the Microsoft family” on Friday, April 25th. The deal, in which Microsoft will acquire “substantially all” of Nokia’s mobile phones businesses, was first announced last September, and was slated to close “in the first quarter” of this year, which it narrowly missed.
According to Smith, the deal has been amended slightly:
As with any multinational agreement of this size, scale and complexity, our two companies have made adjustments to the original deal throughout the close preparation process. We’ve entered into numerous agreements to address items ranging from manufacturing to IT. These include the following:
· While the original deal did not address the management of online assets, our two companies have agreed that Microsoft will manage the nokia.com domain and social media sites for the benefit of both companies and our customers for up to a year.
· The original deal had all employees in Nokia’s Chief Technology Office continuing with Nokia. We’ve adjusted the agreement so the 21 employees in China working on mobile phones will join Microsoft and continue their work.
· The original deal had Microsoft acquiring Nokia’s Korean manufacturing facility. The agreement was adjusted and Microsoft will not acquire the facility.
Now, of course, the big task begins, as Microsoft will need to assimilate some 30,000 workers and a whole new culture of “mobile first, cloud first”, all while competing from far behind with the likes of Apple and Google’s Android.
