Microsoft's legal eagles were burning the midnight oil when they issued a statement late Sunday stating the deal to acquire Nokia's mobile business will not be completed until April.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's VP for Legal & Corporate Affairs, blogged that instead of closing "sometime during the first quarter of 2014" which would mean the end of March, as originally stated when the deal was announced last September, it would instead be settled next month. The statement indicates exactly how difficult and time consuming it is for two gigantic multinational firms to merge.
"We wanted to provide a brief update on the status of the regulatory process for approval of Microsoft's acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business. We are nearing the final stages of our global regulatory approval process - to date we have received approvals from regulatory authorities in 15 markets on five continents. Currently, we are awaiting approval confirmation in the final markets. This work has been progressing, and we expect to close next month, in April 2014," Smith blogged.
One report places the blame for the delay on Nokia for having not yet received the go-ahead from some regulatory agencies in Asia. This could result in the Finnish handset maker having to make greater concessions in regard to its patent licensing fees towards its competitors, primarily Samsung and Google.
There are also some outstanding tax issues Nokia needs to resolve. Last week the company was handed a $414 million tax bill by India.
The two companies announced in September 2013 that Microsoft would acquire Nokia's Devices & Services business, essentially all its smartphone and mobile business, for $7 billion.
As Smith said in his latest post, Microsoft has big plans for the Nokia assets.
"The completion of this acquisition will mark the first step to bring Microsoft and the Nokia Devices and Services business together. Our acquisition will accelerate our mobile-first, cloud-first imperatives. We're looking forward to accelerating innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones and introducing the next billion customers to Microsoft services via Nokia mobile phones," he said.
