With Microsoft expecting to complete its acquisition of Nokia's devices and services businesses within days, the firm has begun alerting customers, partners, suppliers, and others that deal with Nokia about how this change will impact them. Among the changes is a new name for the parts of Nokia that will be subsumed by Microsoft.
Related: Done Deal: China Approves Microsoft Purchase of Nokia
"Under the terms of the sale, Microsoft will assume all rights, benefits and obligations of the Nokia Devices and Services business, including Nokia's agreements with suppliers, customers and partners which pertain to the Devices and Services business," a letter to Nokia's suppliers reads. "The current terms and conditions that you have with the Devices and Services business will not change."
What will change, however, is the name. Rather than dealing with Nokia Corporation/Nokia Oyj going forward, Nokia's suppliers will now interface with a new business named Microsoft Mobile Oy. This business will be based in Finland, as before, as will the remains of Nokia, which will continue using the Nokia name.
Related: Microsoft to Close Nokia Deal by End of April
Several readers also forwarded an email message from Nokia that explains some of the coming changes. In the email, Nokia reiterates that the firms both expect the deal to close this month, and reminds users that certain parts of the Nokia business, including the HERE location-based products and services, are not part of the Microsoft acquisition. It also notes that no changes are coming from a privacy standpoint.
"Microsoft cares deeply about your privacy and the protection of your personal data and will continue to collect and use your personal data in the same ways and for the same reasons as Nokia, and you should experience no difference as a result of the sale," the email reads. And it confirms that "a Microsoft Finnish affiliate" named Microsoft Mobile Oy will assume responsibility for users' "personal data and the contractual relationships for the products and services related to this business."
Microsoft announced its blockbuster $7.4 billion purchase of Nokia's devices and services businesses last September and had originally hoped to close the transaction in the first quarter of 2014, or by the end of March. Slow-moving antitrust regulators in China held up the sale, however, forcing a delay. But with that issue now resolved, the firm expects to complete its acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business sometime this month.
