Nokia To Acquire Trolltech For NOK 16 Per Share

(RTTNews) - Monday, Nokia Corp. (NOK | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Trolltech ASA through a public voluntary tender offer. Nokia will offer Trolltech shareholders NOK 16 per share in cash.

Oslo, Norway-headquartered Trolltech is a software provider with software development platforms and frameworks. Trolltech's Board of Directors has recommended the offer to its shareholders.

Nokia expects the acquisition to help in the implementation of its software strategy. The acquisition of Trolltech will help Nokia accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business. With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers can develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on computers.

According to Nokia, holders of 35.02 million shares, representing about 66.43% of Trolltech's issued shares and votes have as of January 27, 2008, undertaken to accept the offer. Haavard Nord, Vuonislahti Invest AS, Teknoinvest and certain funds managed by Index Ventures are some of the shareholders who have agreed to tender their shares to Nokia.

The company said that the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including acceptance by shareholders representing more than 90 % of the fully diluted share capital, and the necessary regulatory approvals. The offer will be open for acceptance for a period of four weeks and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008. If the conditions to the offer are satisfied or waived, Nokia said that it has the legal duty to make a mandatory cash offer for or compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares.

Nokia said that it would continue to improve Trolltech products through active and ongoing development, for both desktop and mobile. To further stimulate industry innovation based on Trolltech's products, Nokia plans to continue to license Trolltech technology under both commercial and open source licenses.

NOK closed Friday's regular trade at $35.08, down $1.4, on a volume of 31.28 million shares.

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