Nokia handset brand to be resurrected
HMD Global, a company formed from the ashes of Nokia and Microsoft’s handset divisions, has announced deals with the two companies to make and sell Nokia-branded mobile handsets.
May 18, 2016
![Nokia handset brand to be resurrected Nokia handset brand to be resurrected](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt3d4d54955bda84c0/bltd7a8b8316f1a898c/654d037588fed1040a174c97/Nokia-230-feature-phone.jpg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale)
HMD Global, a company formed from the ashes of Nokia and Microsoft’s handset divisions, has announced deals with the two companies to make and sell Nokia-branded mobile handsets.
In a flurry of announcements today HMD announced its creation, Microsoft announced it was selling its feature phone business, which it acquired from Nokia, to HMD and Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile, for $350 million, and Nokia announced a ‘strategic brand licensing agreement’ with HMD, allowing it to make and sell Nokia-branded handsets and tablets for the next ten years.
The CEO of HMD is Arto Nummela, who is currently Microsoft’s mobile devices VP for the APAC, Middle East and Africa regions. Nummela came over to Microsoft with the Nokia devices division acquisition and was a Nokia lifer, having previously been SVP of Sales and Marketing in India, Middle East and Africa and, prior to that, VP of Nokia’s smartphone business in the Americas.
The only other publicly named HMD exec is Florian Seiche, who is currently Eurpean Sales and Marketing SVP for Microsoft Mobile, having joined Nokia in the same capacity in the middle of 2013. Seiche’s main claim to fame, however, is the eight years he spent as HTC’s EMEA President, which encompassed the company’s move from ODM to major smartphone brand.
So it would be fair to say the two of them have a fair bit of experience of the rollercoaster ride the handset business has experienced over the past decade and, in effect, this seems like a management buyout of the Microsoft feature phone business. HMD is partly owned by its management and partly by private equity fund Smart Connect, which is run by former Nokia SVP of Sourcing and Procurement Jean-Francois Baril.