Mergers: Commission clears acquisition of Nokia's mobile device business by Microsoft
The
European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed
acquisition of most of Nokia Corporation's devices & services business (the
"D&S business") by Microsoft Corporation. The D&S business
mainly produces and sells smartphones and feature phones. The Commission
concluded that the transaction would not raise any competition concerns, in
particular because there are only modest overlaps between the parties'
activities and the links between Microsoft's mobile operating systems, mobile
applications and enterprise mail server software with Nokia's smart mobile
devices are unlikely to lead to competitors being shut out from the market.