Formerly just one of the major players in the Windows Phone share of the mobile industry, Nokia is now set to be the cornerstone of Microsoft’s mobile initiative as Redmon announced it’s plans to buy the Finland-based manufacturer. The deal is set to close in the first quarter of 2014 with payments going broken down into 3.79 billion Euros for Nokia’s business, plus another 1.65 billion Euros for its portfolio of patents for a total of 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion).
Around 32,000 employees are set to transfer from Nokia to Microsoft — the biggest transition since Nokia announced it’s plans to drop the Symbian operating system off it’s mobile phone family — including 18,300 that are “directly involved in manufacturing.”
As part of the agreement for the acquisition, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will step down and take the helm of Microsoft’s Devices team while a previous chairman of the company’s Board of Directorys, Risto Siilasmaa was named Nokia’s Interim CEO.
