Shareholders OK Nokia's Microsoft deal by 99.7 per cent in Helsinki

NOKIA has announced that its shareholders have approved the 5.44 billion euro ($7.35 billion) sale of its mobile phone division to Microsoft.

microsoft and nokia

NOKIA has announced that its shareholders have approved the 5.44 billion euro ($7.35 billion) sale of its mobile phone division to Microsoft.

According to Nokia - which will now become a telecom equipment and services company - the deal was almost unanimously approved (99.7 per cent) by shareholders who voted ahead of an extraordinary meeting in Helsinki.

The transfer of the handset business should take place in early 2014.

Once the world leader in mobile phones, Nokia lost its top place to South Korea's Samsung in 2012.

Although still number two in the overall mobile phone market, ahead of US giant Apple, the company now ranks eighth on the rapidly growing smartphone (internet enabled) market, according to telecom consultancy Gartner.

Nokia has been posting losses - 3.1 billion euros in 2012 and 590 million euros in the first nine months of 2013 - and the sale is an attempt to relaunch into more profitable business areas.

The decision by shareholders to shed the brand's last link to its once great phone empire was largely expected and the company's share price has doubled since the plan was announced in early September.