China Approves Microsoft-Nokia Deal, Gets Patent Concessions In Return 26
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."
Since when... (Score:1)
Did china care about patents... Considering all the knockoffs they make over there.
Re:Since when... (Score:5, 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.
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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!
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They care about their patents.
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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.
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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...
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Earth to you: Read what I was fucking responding to, dumbass.
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"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.
Wow (Score:4, 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.
First they Elop(ed), now it's official (Score:2)
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.
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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.
Patent concessions for regulatory approval (Score:2)
So, Microsnokia bought regulatory approval in China. Colour me surprised.
Why trouble for Android (Score:2)
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.
Apple were slow with language support (Score:2)
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 b
"... fair patent use" (Score:2)
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?