European Commission approves Microsoft takeover of Nokia mobile device business unit

Phoenix Science and technology news Beijing time December 5, according to ZDNet website reported that the European Commission December 4 approved Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia Mobile Equipment sector transactions. In a press release, the European Commission said the deal will not cause any competition concerns, as the two companies have few overlapping businesses, particularly Microsoft's mobile operating system, mobile apps and corporate mail Server software, and the link between Nokia's smart mobile devices, which is unlikely to result in competitors exiting the market. "In 2012, nearly 700 million smartphones and 162 million tablets were sold worldwide," the European Commission added in a press release. The Board assessed the impact of the deal in the area of smart mobile devices. We find that these two companies have little overlap in this area of operations. Some strong competitors, such as Samsung and Apple, will continue to compete with the merged company. "The European Commission has investigated the vertical relationship between Microsoft and Nokia in many areas such as smart mobile devices and mobile operating systems, applications, Enterprise mail server software and related communication protocols. None of these relationships seems to raise concerns, as Microsoft's market share in mobile OS is limited. Microsoft is expected to continue to rely on third-party device providers to compete with Android and Apple platforms. The European Commission said Microsoft could not restrict mobile apps such as Office suite software and Skype to rival smart device providers. In addition, Microsoft cannot restrict interoperability between competing smart mobile devices and Exchange mail servers, because their current contract terms with Microsoft's Patent licensing agreement cover the communication protocol between intelligent mobile devices and Microsoft Exchange servers for managing e-mail, calendars, and contact-person synchronization. ' We look forward to the day when Nokia partners are members of the Microsoft family, ' a spokesman for Microsoft said. We are satisfied with the unconditional approval of the European Commission for the deal. (Compiling/willow wind)