On 24 April 2008, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration by which the undertaking Nokia Corporation (‘Nokia’, Finland) acquires control of the whole of the undertaking Trolltech ASA (‘Trolltech’, Norway) by way of a public bid announced on 28 January 2008.

Nokia: Equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

Why is Nokia interested in that? Though the Finnish giant still makes most of its money from phones, it is branching out into other mobile gizmos and online services that can be accessed from handsets, PCs, or even TVs. Analysts say Nokia will likely use Trolltech's technology to help develop applications that span these different devices.

Smart Strategy

Nokia is responding to tectonic market shifts. These days, when consumers buy digital content—such as music or a movie—they want to be able to pay for it once and move it easily between different devices they own. What's more, analysts say, consumer expectations for software on phones have changed dramatically since Apple's iPhone went on the market last year.

Trolltech: Trolltech is a recognized software provider with world-class software cross-platform development and development solutions or supply of software development tools.

The Commission has invited interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation, in the notification published on the 7th May 2008 in the Official Jounral of the European Union (OJ).

Observations should be sent to:
European Commission
Directorate-General for Competition
Merger Registry
J-70
B-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel