Microsoft is getting rid of the last vestiges of its disastrous acquisition of Nokia’s devices division with the sale of its feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Hon Hai/Foxconn Technology Group and HMD Global, Oy.
Subject to regulatory approval the deal could be worth as much as $350 million.
FIH Mobile will also acquire Microsoft Mobile Vietnam – the company’s Hanoi, manufacturing facility.
Some 4,500 employees will transfer to, or have the opportunity to join, FIH Mobile or HMD Global, Oy.
Microsoft is leaving the low-end of the market behind but that’s not completely the end of Redmnod’s interest in devices. On top of the Surface tablet and Surface Book hybrid laptop it will continue to develop smartphones, such as the Lumia 650, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, through OEM partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and Vaio.
Nokia sold its devices division to Microsoft in 2014 for $7.9 billion as part of then-CEO Steve Ballmer’s devices and services strategy. A year later Microsoft announced the cutting of 7,800 jobs and a $7.6 billion impairment charge as a result of poor sales and new CEO Satya Nadella’s (pictured) Windows 10-centric ‘cloud-first, mobile-first’ philosophy. This meant there as no room for basic handsets incapable of running the contemporary OS.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2016.
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