Boston, MA, 11/20/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Nokia Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:NOK)’s investors have approved the mobile-phone unit sale to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). Reportedly, the deal valued to be 5.44 billion-euro or $7.4 billion will help the Finnish company to shift its focus from the unprofitable division to networks.
On Tuesday, the Shareholders meeting which took place in Helsinki, has cleared the company’s pending decision on the disposal of its phone business. Nearly 99 percent of the votes went in favor of the deal at the meeting. Although, the company’s Lumia and Asha Smartphones recorded a steady rise in their shipments to 8.8 million during the last quarter but still the sales languished behind that of Samsung Electronics Co. devices and Apple iPhones. Nokia announced the sale of its phone division in September after it failed at the attempts to gain ground in Smartphones post Apple’s iPhone launch in 2007. In the past, Nokia had a whopping share of 50 percent in phone marketwhich now shrunk to just 3 percent share.
Nokia’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop, who took charge three years ago and had previously worked with Microsoft, had replaced the phonemaker’s own operating system with that of his previous employer’s Windows software. Elop, who now leads the device unit which will go to Microsoft, cut more than 21,000 jobs and stopped several production facilities in his bid to bring back Nokia into profitability. Elop will get almost $25 million for completing the sale and is also seen as a strong contender for Microsoft’s CEO search. The deal is expected to get over by the close of the first quarter of 2014.
After the sale, Nokia is likely to generate almost 90 percent of its sales through its networks business which it completely took over from Siemens AG in August. In the last quarter, revenue of its Nokia Solutions and Networks unit,dropped 26 percent to 2.59 billion euros.
