Microsoft has struck a €5.4bn (£4.6bn) all-cash deal with Nokia to buy the Finnish group's mobile phone business and license its patents. The move represents a last ditch, all guns blazing attempt by the Seattle-based computing giant to compete in the lucrative smartphone market with Google' s Android and Apple' s iPhone.
Shares in Nokia soared by nearly a third on the news to €3.98 in Helsinki. Shares in Microsoft, meanwhile, tumbled almost 6 per cent as investors reacted with doubt to Microsoft's chances of mounting a serious challenge this late in the smartphone game.
The Windows platform had just 3.7 per cent of the global smartphone market in the second quarter of 2013, according to data from IDC - a distant third place behind world leader Android and premium provider, Apple.
Idle speculation suggested Nokia had been considering a late switch to Android, and with only a few other handset makers producing phones running the Windows operating system, this would have been disastrous for the already beleaguered Windows platform, as Nokia is responsible for over 80 per cent of current sales.
The deal will nevertheless transform Nokia from a struggling handset maker into an independent telecoms equipment company.
