Microsoft buys Nokia

Microsoft is to buy the Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia for €5.4bn.

Microsoft is buying Nokia’s devices and services business, and getting access to the company’s patents, for a total of €5.44bn in an effort to expand its share of the smartphone market.

Nokia confirmed the deal in a joint news release from the two companies.

In the statement, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the deal will bring Nokia’s capability and talent in hardware design, engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution to Microsoft.

The companies say that when the deal closes in early 2014, about 32,000 Nokia employees will transfer to Microsoft.

Nokia plans to hold a news conference in Espoo, Finland, this morning.