The European Commission approved on 27 November Microsoft’s nearly 5.5-billion-euro (S$ 9.3 billion) takeover of the mobile phone business of Finland’s Nokia which once dominated the global industry.
The acquisition does “not raise any competition concerns, in particular because there are only modest overlaps between” the two companies, the Commission said in a statement.
The links that do exist between existing Microsoft activities and Nokia’s smartphone devices “are unlikely to lead to competitors being shut out from the market,” it said.
In smartphones and tablets, the two companies face “several strong rivals, such as Samsung and Apple (who) will continue to compete with the merged entity,” it said.
Source: The Straights Times
