New Delhi: Nokia is all set for a comeback. The former mobile phone giant has signed an exclusive 10-year licensing deal with Finnish company HMD Global Oy to create Nokia-branded phones and tablets.
Once the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, Nokia, sold its core hardware assets to Microsoft two years back in 2014.
The development comes on a day when Microsoft announced an agreement to sell its feature-phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn and another entity called HMD Global, at around $350 million (roughly Rs. 2,343 crore). After the deal is over, almost 4,500 employees will have the opportunity to work with FIH Mobile, or HMD Global.
Microsoft has been struggling with Apple and Android and saw a 46 percent drop year-on-year on mobile revenues last quarter. But in a press statement it has said that the company will continue sale of Windows 10 Mobile and support Lumia phones, as well as phones from its OEM partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity, and Vaio.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2016 and will see Microsoft transfer all its feature phone assets, including brands, software and services, care network and other assets, customer contracts, and critical supply agreements.
