Withings Team to run the show at Nokia. No layoffs. Nokia already supporting Withings launches

Nokia has announced plans to acquire Digital-Health company Withings and the planned transaction values Withings at EUR 170 million and would be settled in cash and is expected to close in early Q3, 2016. In an interview that we had reported earlier about, Ramzi Haidamus had also clarified about the the Withings acquisition strategy and how the overall team synergy will work.

Ramzi Haidamus, President of Nokia Technologies, describes the company’s pending $191 million acquisition of Withings as a “reverse takeover”.

“Nokia is paying the bill, but it’s really Cedric [Hutchings, CEO of Withings] and his team that will come into Nokia and run the whole show,” Haidamus told MobiHealthNews. “All our digital health efforts inside the company will report to Cedric and his team and he will determine the strategy and the product roadmap moving forward.”

It is not yet decided under what brand the Digital Health products will be sold post acquisition and Nokia is doing market research to help the final decision. It also seems there will be no lay-offs at either Nokia or Withings and Nokia is planning to get more talent post acquisition.

Haidamus and Hutchings aren’t yet sure how Withings devices will be branded going forward — Nokia is more generally well known, especially globally, whereas Withings has more cache in digital health circles. Nokia has begun market research into the question and hopes to have an answer when the acquisition is expected to complete — in Q3.

The whole team from Withings is staying on board and continuing to operate out of their current offices in Boston, Paris, and Hong Kong. No one at Nokia is being let go as a result of the deal either. In fact, Haidamus hopes to expand the team with additional outside talent as the new company defines its mission.

Now, while Q3 is away Nokia has already started supporting Withings’ new product launches via its social networking accounts.