We reported, China taking its sweet time in providing approval for Nokia-MS deal. The reason behind this delay was cited to be the apprehension of local vendors about Nokia getting aggressive with its patent monetization post deal closure, which may lead to higher royalties and broader patent licensing.
Now, we hear from people close to Nokia that talks between Nokia execs and China government have culminated in background. It may have already resulted in China government agreeing to approve the deal. The announcement may come soon and possibly before 23rd January, the day on which both Nokia and Microsoft will declare their quarterly results.
According to our sources,
Nokia has convinced Chinese higher-ups that it will not resort to any patent aggression in short term and that its networking arm will invest in China and help it position itself as a world innovation hub. NSN’s CEO Rajeev Suri has visited and was hosted by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in Beijing.
In another piece of news, Delhi high court has deferred the hearing in Nokia Tax case to January 20th. Indian Income Tax department has filed plea seeking “directions/clarifications” on the Court’s December 12 order by which the assets of mobile phone handset maker Nokia in India were defreezed, paving way to Chennai plant’s inclusion in Nokia-MS deal. IT department had said that Nokia’s guarantee serves no purpose and asked court for directions.
The Court has raised certain technical and procedural infirmities in taking up the plea of I-T department.
“As the roster has changed, you (I-T department) need to get one of the applications referred to us by a judicial order of the bench which is presently dealing with tax matters,” Justice Khanna said.
Now, the I-T department on Monday would move to a bench headed by Justice S Ravindra Bhat for an order to transfer the plea to the original court.
