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Nokia said on Monday that it would acquire Trolltech ASA for about 844mn krona (US$153.7mn) or 16 Norwegian krona per share in cash.

The Finnish mobile handset giant said the acquisition of Trolltech will enable it to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business.

The Board of Trolltech has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept Nokia's offer. Holders of 35,024,830 shares, representing about 66.43% of Trolltech's issued shares and votes have as of January 27 irrevocably undertaken to accept the offer.

The world's top mobile device maker said that shareholders, including Haavard Nord, Vuonislahti Invest AS, Teknoinvest and funds managed by Index Ventures, have agreed to tender their shares.

With the acquisition of Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and acceptance by shareholders holding over 90% of Trolltech's share capital. Nokia said it expects to wrap up the deal in the second quarter.

"Trolltech's deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40," said Kai Öistämö, Executive V-P, Devices, Nokia.

Nokia aims to continue the development of Trolltech's products and support of new and existing customers. Nokia strives for an open approach to technology that will encourage and support innovation in the industry, enable fast adoption of new technologies and advance healthy competition. Nokia embraces open source technology and will take further the open source development culture found in Trolltech.

"Trolltech and Nokia share the goal of accelerating the adoption of Trolltech's Qt based technology in the commercial market and in the open source community," said Haavard Nord, CEO and founder of Trolltech.

Nokia intends to continue to enhance Trolltech products through active and ongoing development, for both desktop and mobile. To further stimulate industry innovation based on Trolltech's products, Nokia plans to continue to license Trolltech technology under both commercial and open source licenses.

Labels: Nokia

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