Two years after hitching its destiny to Microsoft's Windows Phone software program, Nokia collapsed into the arms of the U.S. software program big, agreeing to promote its primary handset enterprise for five.44 billion euros (N11.6 trillion).
Nokia, which will not stop as a maker of networking gear and holder of patents, was as soon as the world's domit handset producer however was lengthy since overtaken by Apple and Samsung.
Nokia's Canadian boss Stephen Elop who ran Microsoft's enterprise software program division earlier than leaping to Nokia in 2010, will now return to the U.S. agency as head of its cell gadgets enterprise.
He is being mentioned asan attainable substitute for Microsoft's retiring CEO, Steve Ballmer, who's attempting to remake the U.S. agency right into a gadget and providers firm like Apple earlier than he departs.
In three years beneath Mr. Elop, Nokia noticed its market share collapse and its share value shrivel as traders guess closely that his technique would fail.
In 2011, after writing a memo that said.Nokia was falling behind and lacked the in-house know-how to catch up, Mr. Elop made the controversial choice to make use of his former agency Microsoft's Windows Phone for smartphones, quite than Nokia's personal software program or Google's ubiquitous Android working system.
Nokia, which had a 40 per cent share of the handset market in 2007, now has a mere 15 per cent market share, with an excellent smaller three per cent share in smartphones.
The sale of the handset enterprise isn't the primary dramatic flip within the 148-year historical past of an organization which has bought every thing from tv units to rubber boots.
The transfer leaves the Finnish firm with Nokia Solutions and Networks, which competes with the likes of Ericsson and Huawei in telecoms gear, in addition to a navigation enterprise and a broad portfolio of patents.