Microsoft to complete acquisition of Nokia Devices and Services business on Friday
The Nokia Devices and Services acquisition close date — The following post is from Brad Smith, General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft.
Context & Ripple Effects
This close ends a five-month regulatory tail: the U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal in December 2013, the European Commission cleared it days later, and then Microsoft's $7.2B purchase was officially pushed from an earlier window into April while the approvals were finalized.
The announcement comes via Brad Smith, Microsoft's General Counsel, signaling that the remaining work is corporate and legal rather than strategic — the deal terms are settled, and Friday is mechanics. The breadth of same-day pickup (ZDNet, Re/code, Forbes, Computerworld, BGR among others) reflects how closely the industry is watching Microsoft convert itself into a device maker.
First-order effects
- Nokia's Devices and Services business changes hands to Microsoft on Friday, putting roughly 25,000 former Nokia employees' phones, supply chains, and manufacturing assets under Microsoft ownership.
- Microsoft inherits direct accountability for handset hardware — pricing, inventory, and carrier relationships shift from a partner it licensed to a division it owns, starting with the fiscal-year reporting line.
Second-order effects
- Rivals now face a vertically integrated Windows Phone: Samsung and HTC, which hedged with Windows handsets, must weigh whether a Microsoft-owned hardware arm still treats them as partners or as competitors for the same OS.
- Residual Nokia — stripped of the phone business — competes for relevance as a networks and licensing company, and its patent portfolio becomes a revenue lever rather than a shield for its own handsets.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the mobile market consolidates further around integrated hardware-plus-OS owners (Apple, Google-with-Motorola precedent, now Microsoft), squeezing out license-based OS vendors who lack captive distribution.
- For European tech, the deal marks a structural retreat: a flagship national champion exits consumer devices, leaving the continent's role in mobile centered on networking equipment and IP licensing rather than handsets.
The trend: Mobile is consolidating around companies that own both the operating system and the hardware that ships it, with Microsoft's absorption of Nokia's device business completing that vertical-integration playbook.