Ahead of the weekend, Nokia completed the sale of substantially all of its “Devices and Services” business to Microsoft.
The transaction, which also includes an agreement to license patents to Microsoft, was originally announced last September.
“As earlier communicated, the transaction was subject to potential purchase price adjustments,” the company said in a written statement. “The estimate of the adjustments made for net working capital and cash earnings was slightly positive for Nokia, and we currently expect the total transaction price to be slightly higher than the earlier-announced transaction price of EUR 5.44 billion after the final adjustments are made based on the verified closing balance sheet.”
Marc Poirier Co-Founder and EVP, Business Development of Acquisio, shared his thoughts with MMW late last year on Nokia’s deal with Microsoft.
“In July, Steve Ballmer announced the ‘One Microsoft’ strategy, a restructuring that would make Microsoft a devices and services company,” Poirier says. “The devices part of the equation is becoming quite clear, Xbox and Windows Phone. Perhaps Nokia can even help with the production of the Microsoft tablets.”
“More control over smartphones opens the door to so many opportunities in mobile advertising,” he adds. “For example, cross-device tracking – i.e. having the ability to recognize a person as they move from their desktop to their tablet to their phone and xbox, log and understand what they do and to leverage this data for advertisers. Eventually, this could be the foundation for some new business models revolving around subsidizing the smartphones in exchange for the right to deliver targeted advertising, including location-based ads.”
