21st Apr 2011 11:10
Nokia / Miscellaneous 21.04.2011 12:10 Dissemination of a UK Regulatory Announcement, transmitted byDGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key contributions to new global mobile ecosystem agreed and significantprogress made on engineering of new productsNokia CorporationStock exchange releaseApril 21, 2011 at 13.10 (CET +1) Espoo, Finland and Redmond, US - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)today announced the signing of a definitive agreement on a partnership thatwill result in a new global mobile ecosystem, utilizing the very complementaryassets of both companies. Completed ahead of schedule, the definitive agreementis consistent with the joint announcement made on February 11. In addition to agreeing to the terms of their partnership, including jointcontributions to the development of the new ecosystem, Nokia and Microsoft alsoannounced significant progress on the development of the first Nokia productsincorporating Windows Phone. With hundreds of personnel already engaged onjoint engineering efforts, the companies are collaborating on a portfolio ofnew Nokia devices. Nokia has also started porting key applications and servicesto operate on Windows Phone and joint outreach has begun to third partyapplication developers. 'At the highest level, we have entered into a win-win partnership,' saidStephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia Corporation. 'It is the complementarynature of our assets, and the overall competitiveness of that combinedoffering, that is the foundation of our relationship.' 'Our agreement is good for the industry,' said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.'Together, Nokia and Microsoft will innovate with greater speed, and provideenhanced opportunities for consumers and our partners to share in the successof our ecosystem.' The relationship is structured around four broad areas: 1. A combination of complementary assets, which make the partnership trulyunique, including: - Nokia to deliver mapping, navigation, and certain location-based services tothe Windows Phone ecosystem. Nokia will build innovation on top of the WindowsPhone platform in areas such as imaging, while contributing expertise onhardware design and language support, and helping to drive the development ofthe Windows Phone platform. Microsoft will provide Bing search services acrossthe Nokia device portfolio as well as contributing strength in productivity,advertising, gaming, social media and a variety of other services. Thecombination of navigation with advertising and search will enable bettermonetization of Nokia's navigation assets and completely new forms ofadvertising revenue. - Joint developer outreach and application sourcing, to support the creation ofnew local and global applications, including making Windows Phone developerregistration free for all Nokia developers. - Opening a new Nokia-branded global application store that leverages theWindows Marketplace infrastructure. Developers will be able to publish anddistribute applications through a single developer portal to hundreds ofmillions of consumers that use Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices. - Contribution of Nokia's expertise in operator billing to ensure participantsin the Windows Phone ecosystem can take advantage of Nokia's billing agreementswith 112 operators in 36 markets. 2. Microsoft will receive a running royalty from Nokia for the Windows Phoneplatform, starting when the first Nokia products incorporating Windows Phoneship. The royalty payments are competitive and reflect the large volumes thatNokia expects to ship, as well as a variety of other considerations related toengineering work to which both companies are committed. Microsoft deliveringthe Windows Phone platform to Nokia will enable Nokia to significantly reduceoperating expenses. 3. In recognition of the unique nature of Nokia's agreement with Microsoft andthe contributions that Nokia is providing, Nokia will receive payments measuredin the billions of dollars. 4. An agreement that recognizes the value of intellectual property and puts inplace mechanisms for exchanging rights to intellectual property. Nokia willreceive substantial payments under the agreement. With the definitive agreement now signed, both companies will begin engagingwith operators, developers and other partners to help the industry understandthe benefits of joining the new ecosystem. At the same time, work will continueon developing Nokia products on the Windows Phone platform, with the aim ofsecuring volume device shipments in 2012. The scale of both companies' mutualcommitment is significant and is in keeping with the intention to build a newecosystem based on this long-term, strategic partnership. About NokiaNokia is committed to connecting people to what matters to them by combiningadvanced mobile technology with personalized services. More than 1.3 billionpeople connect to one another with a Nokia, from our most affordablevoice-optimized mobile phones to advanced Internet-connected smartphones soldin virtually every market in the world. Through Ovi (www.ovi.com), people alsoenjoy access to maps and navigation on mobile, a rapidly expanding applicationsstore, a growing catalog of digital music, free email and more. Nokia's NAVTEQis a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, and NokiaSiemens Networks is one of the leading providers of telecommunicationsinfrastructure hardware, software and professional services globally. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSIt should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historicalfacts are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, thoseregarding: A) the expected plans and benefits of our strategic partnership withMicrosoft to combine complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobileecosystem and to adopt Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform; B) thetiming and expected benefits of our new strategy, including expectedoperational and financial benefits and targets as well as changes in leadershipand operational structure; C) the timing of the deliveries of our products andservices; D) our ability to innovate, develop, execute and commercialize newtechnologies, products and services; E) expectations regarding marketdevelopments and structural changes; F) expectations and targets regarding ourindustry volumes, market share, prices, net sales and margins of products andservices; G) expectations and targets regarding our operational priorities andresults of operations; H) expectations and targets regarding collaboration andpartnering arrangements; I) the outcome of pending and threatened litigation;J) expectations regarding the successful completion of acquisitions orrestructurings on a timely basis and our ability to achieve the financial andoperational targets set in connection with any such acquisition orrestructuring; and K) statements preceded by 'believe,' 'expect,' 'anticipate,''foresee,' 'target,' 'estimate,' 'designed,' 'plans,' 'will' or similarexpressions. These statements are based on management's best assumptions andbeliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because theyinvolve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from theresults that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differencesinclude, but are not limited to: 1) our ability to succeed in creating acompetitive smartphone platform for high-quality differentiated winningsmartphones or in creating new sources of revenue through our partnership withMicrosoft; 2) the expected timing of the planned transition to Windows Phone asour primary smartphone platform and the introduction of mobile products basedon that platform; 3) our ability to maintain the viability of our currentSymbian smartphone platform during the transition to Windows Phone as ourprimary smartphone platform; 4) our ability to realize a return on ourinvestment in MeeGo and next generation devices, platforms and userexperiences; 5) our ability to build a competitive and profitable globalecosystem of sufficient scale, attractiveness and value to all participants andto bring winning smartphones to the market in a timely manner; 6) our abilityto produce mobile phones in a timely and cost efficient manner withdifferentiated hardware, localized services and applications; 7) our ability toincrease our speed of innovation, product development and execution to bringnew competitive smartphones and mobile phones to the market in a timely manner;8) our ability to retain, motivate, develop and recruit appropriately skilledemployees; 9) our ability to implement our strategies, particularly our newmobile product strategy; 10) the intensity of competition in the variousmarkets where we do business and our ability to maintain or improve our marketposition or respond successfully to changes in the competitive environment; 11)our ability to maintain and leverage our traditional strengths in the mobileproduct market if we are unable to retain the loyalty of our mobile operatorand distributor customers and consumers as a result of the implementation ofour new strategy or other factors; 12) our success in collaboration andpartnering arrangements with third parties, including Microsoft; 13) thesuccess, financial condition and performance of our suppliers, collaborationpartners and customers; 14) our ability to source sufficient quantities offully functional quality components, subassemblies and software on a timelybasis without interruption and on favorable terms, including the disruption ofproduction and/or deliveries from any of our suppliers as a result of adverseconditions in the geographic areas where they are located; 15) our ability tomanage efficiently our manufacturing, service creation, delivery and logisticswithout interruption; 16) our ability to ensure the timely delivery ofsufficient volumes of products that meet our and our customers' and consumers'requirements and manage our inventory and timely adapt our supply to meetchanging demands for our products; 17) any actual or even alleged defects orother quality, safety and security issues in our products; 18) any actual oralleged loss, improper disclosure or leakage of any personal or consumer datacollected or made available to us or stored in or through our products; 19) ourability to successfully manage costs, including our ability to achieve targetedcosts reductions and to effectively and timely execute related restructuringmeasures, including personnel reductions; 20) our ability to effectively andsmoothly implement the new operational structure for our devices and servicesbusiness effective April 1, 2011; 21) the development of the mobile and fixedcommunications industry and general economic conditions globally andregionally; 22) exchange rate fluctuations, including, in particular,fluctuations between the euro, which is our reporting currency, and the USdollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan, as well as certain othercurrencies; 23) our ability to protect the technologies, which we or othersdevelop or that we license, from claims that we have infringed third parties'intellectual property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on commerciallyacceptable terms of certain technologies in our products and services; 24) ourability to protect numerous Nokia, NAVTEQ and Nokia Siemens Networks patented,standardized or proprietary technologies from third-party infringement oractions to invalidate the intellectual property rights of these technologies;25) the impact of changes in government policies, trade policies, laws orregulations and economic or political turmoil in countries where our assets arelocated and we do business; 26) any disruption to information technologysystems and networks that our operations rely on; 27) unfavorable outcome oflitigations; 28) allegations of possible health risks from electromagneticfields generated by base stations and mobile products and lawsuits related tothem, regardless of merit; 29) our ability to achieve targeted costs reductionsand increase profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks and to effectively andtimely execute related restructuring measures; 30) Nokia Siemens Networks'ability to maintain or improve its market position or respond successfully tochanges in the competitive environment; 31) Nokia Siemens Networks' liquidityand its ability to meet its working capital requirements; 32) whether NokiaSiemens Networks' acquisition of the majority of Motorola's wireless networkinfrastructure assets will be completed in a timely manner, or at all, and, ifcompleted, whether Nokia Siemens Networks is able to successfully integrate theacquired business, cross-sell its existing products and services to customersof the acquired business and realize the expected synergies and benefits of theplanned acquisition; 33) Nokia Siemens Networks' ability to timely introducenew products, services, upgrades and technologies; 34) Nokia Siemens Networks'success in the telecommunications infrastructure services market and NokiaSiemens Networks' ability to effectively and profitably adapt its business andoperations in a timely manner to the increasingly diverse service needs of itscustomers; 35) developments under large, multi-year contracts or in relation tomajor customers in the networks infrastructure and related services business;36) the management of our customer financing exposure, particularly in thenetworks infrastructure and related services business; 37) whether ongoing orany additional governmental investigations into alleged violations of law bysome former employees of Siemens AG may involve and affect the carrier-relatedassets and employees transferred by Siemens AG to Nokia Siemens Networks; 38)any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer relationships resulting fromongoing or any additional governmental investigations involving the Siemenscarrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; as well asthe risk factors specified on pages 12-39 of Nokia's annual report Form 20-Ffor the year ended December 31, 2010 under Item 3D. 'Risk Factors.' Otherunknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently provingto be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those inthe forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation topublicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result ofnew information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legallyrequired. Media Enquiries: NokiaCommunicationsTel. +358 7180 34900Email: [email protected] www.nokia.comNews Source: NASDAQ OMX 21.04.2011 DGAP's Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements,Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language: EnglishCompany: Nokia FinlandPhone: Fax: E-mail: Internet: ISIN: FI0009000681Category Code: MSCLSE Ticker: 0HAFSequence Number: 777Time of Receipt: Apr 21, 2011 12:10:04 End of Announcement DGAP News-Service ---------------------------------------------------------------------------UK-Regulatory-announcement transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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