In the past we heard Microsoft speaking of becoming more and more involved with the hardware business quite frequently. Now the software giant from Redmond has announced, they will buy the the mobile phone business from Nokia. For the Finnish this means, that in future they won't be offering smartphones anymore.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Nokia's Steven Elop announced this step in an open letter. There have been lots of rumors going on about such a deal in the past, which is now obviously becoming reality.

In total Microsoft will have to pay 5.4 billion Euro in cash. 3.8 billion Euro, that's what they have to pay for Nokia's handy business including employees and manufacturing plants. For another 1.6 billion Euro Microsoft and Nokia enter a licence aggreement regarding Nokias map service HERE. For this kind of money the aggreement will last for 10 years. Both companies want to close the deal by the end of the 1st quarter 2014 and no less then 32'000 employees will switch to a new employer.

Source: Microsoft