The Back Story Of How Microsoft-Nokia Deal Went Through
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While we have got all information on Why Microsoft acquired Nokia’s Devices and Services division, we are yet to know how the deal happened. Speaking to various media outlets, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia Chairman and CEO Risto Siilasmaa revealed some information about it. The current deal took dozens of meetings, months of work between both the companies.
- Talks started in Feb during MWC when Steve Ballmer and Risto Siilasmaa met each other.
- The main discussion was around “What’s the structure of the partnership,”.
- “We had a Plan A, a Plan B a Plan C,” Ballmer said. “And by the time we were done we had A, A1, A-Prime, B, C, D, E. We looked at many many possibilites together and ultimately took this one with us buying all of Nokia’s phone business, becoming an innovation partner and customer of Here and licensing patents from Nokia.”
- Acquiring Nokia’s Mobile Phones (Feature phone) business was done after months of learning the business and decided that it is a way for Microsoft to better reach the next billion technology customers with both devices and services.
- The deal was in place even before Steve Ballmer decided to retire from Microsoft.
- Steve Ballmer on whether Stephen Elop will become CEO of Microsoft, “Our board is going through a process open to internal and external candidates. It’s a process that they wanted well-known so they could consider everybody internal and external. Stephen Elop happens to be going from external to internal but our board will consider everybody. They will do it in private — that’s the right way for the board to conduct its business.”
- Steve Ballmer on HERE deal, Even though people will focus in on the phone side, the deal which includes Here location services which they are not acquiring will also open up a set of innovation possibilities.
- Steve Ballmer on how this will affect Windows OEMs, “The number one thing that it takes to create opportunities for OEMs is a large market. And our first party in phones will blaze the trail, and perhaps as importantly having phone be a healthy part of the Windows ecosystem will help the OEMs, the many OEMs we have who are focused on tablets, PCs, All-In-Ones, etc.”
