The top news story today that made it Google Trends higher than even the soon to be released iPhone 5S/5C is that Microsoft is acquiring Nokia's mobile/smartphone and licensing of its patent portfolio and mapping services in a $7.2 billion deal.
Microsoft will pay $5 billion for the Nokia mobile phone unit and $2.2 billion for a 10-year license to use Nokia's patents, with the option to extend it indefinitely.
Microsoft will use overseas cash resources to fund the transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.
Microsoft claims to it will accelerate the growth of its share and profit in mobile devices through faster innovation, increased synergies, and unified branding and marketing from the acquisition.
Steve Ballmer suggested that there could be some name changing in the future. He said "We can probably do better for a consumer name than the "Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 1020," and yet, because of where both companies are, and the independent nature of the businesses, we haven't been able to shorten that name."
Nokia expects that Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen, and Chris Weber would transfer to Microsoft at the anticipated closing of the transaction. Elop will become Nokia Executive Vice President of Devices & Services.
Microsoft's Windows Phones, recently became the number three smartphone seller selling 7.4 million units. The most popular model is the economical Nokia Lumia 521.
Following the transaction, Nokia plans to focus on its three established businesses, each of which is a leader in enabling mobility in its respective market segment: NSN, a leader in network infrastructure and services; HERE, a leader in mapping and location services; and Advanced Technologies, a leader in technology development and licensing.
Nokia will retain its headquarters in Finland. Excluding the approximately 32,000 people planned to transfer to Microsoft, Nokia would have employed approximately 56,000 people at the end of the second quarter 2013.