Related Articles
As part of today’s announcement, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will step down from his role and return to Microsoft to be executive vice president of Devices and Services.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
In an email to all staff, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who recently announced his intention to retire, said:
Stephen Elop will be coming back to Microsoft, and he will lead an expanded Devices team, which includes all of our current Devices and Studios work and most of the teams coming over from Nokia, reporting to me.
Elop had been named as a possible contender for the Microsoft CEO role, and today’s announcement certainly seems to bump him into a front-runner position.
The acquisition still needs to be voted on by Nokia shareholders, and the company has called an extraordinary general meeting on 19 November for just this reason. Assuming that nothing untoward occurs, the deal is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2014.
Ballmer’s email also noted that Julie Larson-Green — who was named head of engineering for the new Devices and Studios group in July this year — will be joining Stephen’s team once the acquisition closes, and will work with him to “shape the new organisation”.
Larson-Green’s current role involves running the engineering for the Surface, the Xbox, mice, keyboards, games and entertainment. She will continue to be focused on the Xbox One and Surface devices until the deal is finalised.
It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the end of Nokia. The company not only maintains its patent portfolio, but also a number of its other technology units, including Nokia Solutions and Networks and, of course, its Nokia Here mapping service.
In addition to the Lumia range, Microsoft is acquiring both the Asha brand of low-cost phones and Nokia’s Mobile Phones business unit. Nokia, according to Microsoft’s press statement, “will continue to own and manage the Nokia brand”.
While this move obviously gives Microsoft a far greater control over the hardware platforms that the Windows Phone OS will appear on, it could easily be argued that it will prove unpalatable to other Windows Phone partners, such as HTC or Samsung.
Executive vice president of Microsoft’s operating systems Terry Myerson seems to have anticipated this, taking to the Windows Blog to suggest that the Nokia acquisition would prove beneficial for said partners:
As the engineering leader for the Windows Phone efforts, I was there at the birth of Windows Phone, and a key part of our original partnership with Nokia. I know first-hand how critical it was for me and the team to be a valuable partner to Nokia, in addition to building out a great ecosystem of partners, hardware and software alike. Today’s announcement doesn’t change that — acquiring Nokia’s Devices group will help make the market for all Windows Phones, from Microsoft or our OEM partners.
Nokia is holding a press conference at 6pm AEST today. We’ll update with more information after that time.
