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China Approves Microsoft-Nokia Deal, Gets Patent Concessions In Return

Posted by Soulskill on from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

itwbennett writes: "On Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce gave conditional regulatory approval to Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's Devices & Services business. The $7.2 billion deal means that Microsoft could very soon produce its own smartphones using the Windows Phone operating system. In return, China is requiring Microsoft and Nokia to make promises on fair patent use, fearing that the proposed acquisition between the two companies could spell trouble for the nation's Android device makers."

26 comments

  1. Since when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Did china care about patents... Considering all the knockoffs they make over there.

    1. Re:Since when... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Did china care about patents... Considering all the knockoffs they make over there.

      China doesn't care much about patents for their domestic market, but they do care about their exports being blocked.

    2. Re:Since when... by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Exactly! Like one international shipper used to say - who cares about all those transportation companies that brag about how fast their planes go from USA to China?

      Ours is the fastest coming out of China to USA!

    3. Re:Since when... by jellomizer · · Score: 0

      They care about their patents.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    means that Microsoft could very soon produce its own smartphones using the Windows Phone operating system

    ?

    1. Re:Eh? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      means that Microsoft could very soon produce its own smartphones using the Windows Phone operating system

      ?

      MS doesn't actually make the phones, you see. They make the OS and rely on OEMs to make hardware it runs on.

    2. Re:Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh dear. Are you really this stupid?

    3. Re:Eh? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Earth to sexconker...they just bought Nokia's cell phone division...don't think they bought it just to stop the one not completely unsuccessful company selling phones with Windows Phone OS just to shut it down...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    4. Re:Eh? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Earth to you: Read what I was fucking responding to, dumbass.

  3. I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many nations do they need to get approval from?

    1. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All of them where they have large enough local divisions and enough market clout to have a local monopoly?

      This isn't that hard.

    2. Re:I don't get it by ketomax · · Score: 1

      Considering that Microsoft is a US company and Nokia Finnish, what would happen if China did not approve?

    3. Re:I don't get it by cswilly · · Score: 1

      "Considering that Microsoft is a US company and Nokia Finnish, what would happen if China did not approve?"

      Microsoft's new Nokia division could not to business in China.

  4. Will this get anyone to buy a Windows phone? by Ranbot · · Score: 0

    Probably not.

  5. Yay, an update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did they fix the scrollbars ? Every update they do breaks the plugin that puts the OS specific bars back in.

  6. Wow by HeckRuler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is this feeling the same one that non-americans get when a major economic issue has to go to the US supreame court, or FCC, or FAA, or ICANN?

    Because as an American, this feeling is weird.

  7. Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They learned from the patent trolls over here that you can actually make money from patents.

  8. Awesome! Count me out. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A windows phone made by Microsoft? Great, get ready for epic fail...

  9. Patent concessions for regulatory approval by GumphMaster · · Score: 1

    So, Microsnokia bought regulatory approval in China. Colour me surprised.

    --
    Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
  10. Why trouble for Android by fermion · · Score: 1
    Android has a vast majority share in Asia. Apple tried a cheap phone and Android is still a vast part of the market share. Microsoft has enough cash to give away the Phones, but that did not seem to help with KIN or anything after or before.

    As mentioned before, MS does not have a great incentive to kill Android. MS get a free chunk of money for every handset sold. Cheap phones from Nokia simply mean that MS loses money.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  11. First they Elop(ed), now it's official by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Yes, daddy China will let Microsoft and Nokia marry after they Elop(ed) last year.
    Meanwhile Uncle Sam gets no say since manufacturing is not happening there and due to tax evasion the companies pretend to not be based there.


    Elop must be pretty happy that Nokia was not a Russian company and that those Fins are so polite even when they get screwed over - if they were Russian he'd have their distinctive Polonium calling card in his blood.

  12. Apple were slow with language support by dbIII · · Score: 1
    Apple didn't care enough about the Chinese market to have decent language support so they lost it to Android and Nokia Symbian phones. When Apple tried a cheap phone (which was still more than the competition) it apparently only worked for fluent English readers, so it bombed.

    Cheap phones from Nokia simply mean that MS loses money.

    Massive sales of Nokia symbian phones in the Chinese market even after Elop announced the death of the platform kept Nokia afloat, and probably delayed both Microsoft's planned buyout of the crippled company and the implementation of Elop's plan to kill the platform. Tens of millions of phones at only ten bucks or so of clear profit are nothing to sneeze at so even Elop couldn't kill it without risking a lot of difficult questions from the Finnish government. If he'd done that and driven Nokia well into the red then buying Nokia for a tiny price, saving it from going offshore, and deporting the obvious corporate wrecking ball could have been a vote winner for the Finnish government.

  13. Elop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Elop didn't really screw anything over. It was all a huge mess already. The whole Nokia company isn't being sold here despite the missleading news. The sale is only the mobile phones division that was in huge trouble. Maybe microsoft can do something with it, maybe not. The new phones are actually very nice. I prefer mine (925) over androids, but then I mostly use my phone for communication (calls, sms, email, whatsapp, www) and not as a general portable computer.

    1. Re:Elop by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Elop didn't really screw anything over. It was all a huge mess already

      If selling more phones than the two main competitors combined is a mess then what they hell is the disaster Elop left? I suppose the metric that mattered above all was the stock price, which went down massively under Elop making it a bargain for his former (and now current) employer, Microsoft.

  14. "... fair patent use" by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

    China is requiring Microsoft and Nokia to make promises on fair patent use

    I think a few brain cells just exploded. What can possibly be fair about an extortion permit?

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!