Nokia India confirms exclusion of Chennai plant from Microsoft-Nokia deal

It finally seems that Nokia’s Chennai plant hasn’t made it to Microsoft under the Nokia-Microsoft global deal. It was widely expected following Supreme Court dismissing Nokia’s appeal in the  Tax case and Nokia has even hinted that it will continue manufacturing phone for Microsoft if so happens. But, now a Nokia India spokeswoman has confirmed to Bloomberg that Chennai plant is excluded from the deal,which is going to officially close on 25th of April.

“We are leaving out the plant because of the tax issues,” Poonam Kaul, a Nokia India spokeswoman, said by telephone today. The plant, one of the Espoo, Finland-based company’s largest phone factories, will make products for Microsoft as part of a servicing agreement, according to Kaul.

Nokia is also offering VRS to the workers keeping in mind decline in production volume at the plant and has rejected the apprehensions that it has any plans to close the plant. HTC has shown interest in buying the plant if it is up for sale in future.

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