Hasta La Gadget!

That didn’t take long — just hours after Bloomberg reported that Nokia was planning to buy out its German partner, the two firms have made it official: Nokia Siemens Networks is about to become a fully owned subsidiary of Espoo. The €1.7 billion ($2.2 billion) buyout will eventually see the Siemens name dropped from the network, naturally, though Nokia hasn’t yet announced what the restructured entity will be called. The transaction isn’t a complete surprise, of course — earlier this year Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser told Dow Jones Newswires that 2013 was the year his company would help “NSN to move into a better place,” announcing plans to separate from the partnership.

Kaeser continued the thought in today’s announcement, calling Nokia’s new acquisition as “an attractive opportunity to actively shape the telecom equipment market for the future and create sustainable value.” Nokia head honcho Stephen Elop echoed the sentiment, speaking highly of NSN’s recent financial growth and looking ahead to future ventures. Read on for Nokia and Siemens official press release, complete with quotes, statements and financial specifics.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: The Next Web

Not all partnerships pan out, and Nokia seems ready to call it quits: according to Bloomberg, the company might announce a buy out of the German half of Nokia Siemens Networks later this week. Sources familiar with the matter say that the the Finnish firm is planning to use a bridge loan to finance the $2.6 billion purchase (less than 2 billion euros), taking the entire operation under its own wing. It’s not a completely unexpected move on Nokia’s part — the company previously avoided selling off stake in the network back in 2011, opting to lean on its own shareholders instead. Bloomberg reports that Siemens has declined to comment on the issue, but we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.

Filed under: Misc, Mobile

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Source: Bloomberg

If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, the Galaxy S 4 was spotted in purple garb, a new Windows Phone was outed for AT&T and US Cellular officially welcomed a budget handset from ZTE into its ranks. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that’s happening in the mobile world for this week of June 24th, 2013.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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After two long years, the International Trade Commission has finally come to a decision in favor of Huawei, Nokia and ZTE in a 3G patent case brought by InterDigital in 2011. According to an ITC judge, the three phone manufacturers did not violate the seven InterDigital-owned patents that covers various WCDMA and CDMA2000 technologies used to make their devices. InterDigital even went so far as to request the ban of US sales of these devices pending a decision. The Philadelphia-based company filed a similar complaint against LG, which chose a settlement instead of going through the courts but it argued it had a right to arbitration based on a previous licensing agreement and was taken out of the case (see update below). Still, this is just a preliminary ruling; the final decision of the case is expected in October.

Update: The story initially said LG chose a settlement instead of going through the courts, which is incorrect. We learned from InterDigital that while LG was in the original case, the ITC took the Korean company out once LG said it had a right to arbitration. However, the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit ruled earlier in June that the ITC has made a mistake in excluding LG. So, LG could still face the initial charges brought to it by InterDigital.

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Source: Reuters

Nokia’s Lumia phones show promise despite the company’s dwindling overall sales, and now’s your chance to nab one at more affordable prices — if you’re willing to trade in an old phone, that is. The Finnish company’s new trade up program in the US will take in old mobile devices and send back up to $300 loaded on a Visa prepaid card, so long as you also purchase a Lumia. A lot of brands and models are accepted (check out if yours is via the trade up portal linked below), but popular ones like the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy S 4, and the HTC One will net you the most money. So, if you’re sick of being lost in a crowd of Androids and iPhones, now’s the time to give WP8 a whirl.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: Nokia 1, 2