Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced its decision to sell its entry-level feature phone assets to FIH Mobile Ltd., a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group and HMD Global, Oy.
The company expected to complete the transaction in the second-half of 2016, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
Microsoft today reiterated its support for Windows 10 Mobile, even though there are voices claiming that no new Lumia models would be released, and new stats show that the new smartphone operating system is gaining ground. The separate deals were announced on May 18 by the parties, which include HMD, founded to spearhead the new branding, design, marketing and sales initiatives for Nokia mobile phones, smartphones and tablets.
Nokia declined to give any timetable for new devices.
Sound confusing? Just think of it like this: a company bought the rights to build new phones using the Nokia name, but the products you'll see weren't made by the Nokia you might remember from a few years ago. Former HTC and Nokia executive Florian Seiche, who is now Microsoft's vice president of sales across Europe, will become HMD's president.
Nokia, which acquired Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion in 2015, had been rumored to be eyeing a return to the mobile phone market for the past year.
Nokia - which once made the phones of choice before Apple's iPhone set the smartphone ablaze nearly a decade ago - announced that it will return to the tablet and mobile phone market for the next decade under a new agreement with Global HMD, a Finland-based company, which will receive branding rights and intellectual property licensing to create the technology. With the brand name still quite intact, it is likely that Nokia phones will make a resounding comeback. HMD and Nokia Technologies entered an agreement on cooperation with FIH. "For Nokia, the agreement offers the chance to generate ongoing revenue from mobile devices without having to become involved in the manufacturing and distribution of hardware".
Source: Windows 10 Mobile Gains Ground As Lumia 520 Is Top Windows Phone
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