Nokia Corp. Thursday said it has agreed to sell its remaining share of software development kit Qt to information-technology firm Digia DIG1V.HE +0.35% Oyj for an undisclosed sum and divest a number of patents to U.S.-based Vringo Inc., VRNG -1.16% as the ailing Finnish handset maker continues to divest assets in a bid to return to profitability.
As a result of its decision to focus on smartphones based on Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT -0.10% Windows Phone software and more basic handsets built around its own Series 40 platform, Nokia will no longer use Qt as a development framework for its products, said company spokesman Mark Durrant.
The Qt toolkit, which enables software developers to build programs such as smartphone apps across various technical platforms, was originally developed by Norwegian IT firm Trolltech, which Nokia bought in 2008 for about $150 million. According to Digia, the programming kit has been used by over 450,000 developers across 70 industries.
Once the world's largest handset maker, Nokia has long been losing market share as consumers have abandoned smartphones running its old Symbian operating system for newer devices such as Apple's AAPL +1.32% Inc.'s iPhone and handsets based on Google Inc.'s GOOG +2.81% open-source Android platform.
To raise cash, the company earlier this summer sold most of its luxury handset business Vertu to Swedish private-equity firm EQT for an undisclosed sum. It has also announced massive restructuring plans, including 10,000 new job cuts to trim costs, and said it hopes to make Nokia Siemens Networks, its telecom gear joint venture with Siemens AG, SIE.XE +0.87% more independent.
Finland-based Digia, which acquired the Qt commercial licensing and services
business from Nokia in March last year, said it expects by the third quarter to
take over the remaining business, including technologies, copyright and trademarks,
as well as up to 125 employees in Norway, Germany, Finland and the U.S.
Digia plans to make Qt available for mobile operating systems including
Google's Android, Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows 8, it said Thursday,
adding that it expects the Qt business to grow profitably in the coming years.
Separately, Nokia said Thursday it has agreed at an undisclosed price to
sell around 500 patents relating to technologies such as communication
management and data transmission to software platform provider Vringo.
Nokia has around 30,000 individual patents, but the deal with Vringo is
still a way of making money from the assets, Mr. Durrant said. Nokia is
regularly looking at ways to monetize its patent portfolio, and has made over
20 similar divestments in the past five years, he said.
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