Microsoft to close Nokia deal this week
Software giant finally clears regulatory obstacles to complete $7.2bn acquisition
Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business is to close this week, after the software giant finally cleared the regulatory hurdles necessary for the deal to be completed.
The $7.2bn (£4.6bn) deal, which was initially announced in September 2013, sees Microsoft taking over the mobile phone business of Nokia, and licensing the Finnish company's patents.
Smith said that there had been adjustments and additions to the deal, including the agreement that Microsoft will take over the nokia.com domain and social media sites of Nokia's mobile phone business for up to a year.
The original deal also said that employees at Nokia's chief technology office in China would continue working with Nokia, but this has been adjusted so that the 21 employees will now join Microsoft and continue their work at the software firm.
Microsoft will also now not be acquiring Nokia's Korean manufacturing facility as first agreed.
Smith claimed that the Microsoft-Nokia deal would increase take-up of Windows Phones, and would enable Microsoft to introduce a billion new customers to its services.
The deal means that Microsoft will take over Nokia's smartphone and mobile phone divisions, design teams, manufacturing and assembly facilities and all operations, sales and marketing teams.
It will also inherit Nokia's Herec cloud-based mapping platform, which currently provides global positioning services to Microsoft's Bing search engine, as well as location devices for Garmin, BMW, Oracle, Amazon and Yahoo.
Stephen Elop, the Nokia CEO who previously worked at Microsoft, will return to the software giant as part of the deal, heading the Nokia division within Microsoft, and reporting to chief executive Satya Nadella.