Nokia devices will soon be back on the market. It’s the result of the sale of feature phone assets by Microsoft to a subsidiary of Taiwanese firm Foxconn Technology, and the newly established firm HMD Global, for $350 million.
The deal means that Microsoft will transfer all of its feature phone assets, which includes brands, software, services, customer contracts and supply agreements, to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile to HMD Global. About 4,500 employees will also be transferred or have the chance to join either company.
The deal also includes FIH Mobile’s acquisition of Microsoft Mobile Vietnam, the company’s manufacturing facility in Hanoi.
The transaction is expected to close later in 2016. Microsoft will continue to develop its Windows 10 Mobile operating system and support its Lumina brand of phones and devices.
As phone technology rapidly grows, the smartphone and tablet market is becoming more lucrative from all sides. A full 62% of companies that designed a website specifically for mobile had increased sales, and a phones web browsing capabilities have become much more important.
Nokia, once a major consumer brand and still very iconic, has been in a strange place since Microsoft bought it but has had a large role in behind the scenes network and infrastructure work. Nokia Technologies has recently released a virtual reality camera and the digital health-tracking company Withings.
CEO Arto Nummela, formerly of Nokia, heads HMD Global, and has a lot of hope for the company’s recent acquisition. “We will be completely focused on creating a unified range of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets, which we know will resonate with consumers,” Nummela commented.