Nokia stock price surges on announcement of Microsoft deal

The share price of Nokia surged by 47 per cent in the Helsinki Stock market on Tuesday, after it announced to sell its mobiles and services devision to Microsoft. Before dawn Tuesday, the Finland-based mobile giant announced that it had signed an agreement with Microsoft to sell the devices and services business and licence its patents to the latter for 5.44 billion euros. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014, Nokia said in a press release. The news triggered a positive react in Finland. Immediately after the opening of the stock exchange market in Helsinki at 10 am local time, Nokia' s share price surged by 47% from 2.96 euros to 4.33 euros. One of the reports published by the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle was titled 'End of an era' , while comforting Fins by confirming the headquarters of Nokia will remain in Espoo, Finland. After the transaction, Nokia plans to focus on infrastructure, mapping and licensing, mainly taking care of the network of NSN, location software of HERE, and Advanced Technologies. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will return to Microsoft, and Risto Siilasmaa, the founder of F-Secure security softwares, will lead the company in the transition period. Some 32,000 workers will be transferred to Microsoft, with 4,700 of them located in Finland, according to Yle.