Nokia has announced that it is selling the majority of its handset business to Microsoft in a €5.44 billion (US$7.2 billion) all-cash deal, while Stephen Elop has stepped down as Nokia’s CEO.

Microsoft is paying just €3.8 billion for the handset division, and a single payment of €1.65 billion to license Nokia’s patents for the next ten years. Microsoft also receives a licence for Nokia’s mapping services.

The operations that are planned to be transferred to Microsoft generated an estimated €14.9 billion, or almost 50 per cent, of Nokia’s net sales for the full year 2012.

Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop is stepping aside as Nokia president and CEO but will stay in charge of the mobile phones division as Nokia executive VP of Devices & Services.

Following the purchase, Microsoft said that it aims to accelerate the growth of its share and profit in mobile devices through faster innovation, increased synergies, and unified branding and marketing.

For its part, Nokia plans to focus on its three established businesses — NSN, mapping and its patent portfolio.

"After a thorough assessment of how to maximize shareholder value, including consideration of a variety of alternatives, we believe this transaction is the best path forward for Nokia and its shareholders," said Risto Siilasmaa, chairman of the Nokia board of directors and, following today’s announcement, also Nokia interim CEO.

At closing, approximately 32,000 people are expected to transfer to Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in manufacturing, assembly and packaging of products worldwide.

Nokia will retain its headquarters in Finland.

As part of the transaction, Nokia is assigning to Microsoft its long-term patent licensing agreement with Qualcomm, as well as other licensing agreements.

Nokia will continue to own and manage the Nokia brand, but will grant a 10-year licence to use it to Microsoft.

"Following this transaction, Nokia’s financial situation is expected to be significantly stronger and its earnings profile significantly improved," said Nokia CFO, Timo Ihamuotila. "We will have three well-positioned businesses, each a leader in its market. Overall, we will continue to focus on managing and maximising the assets of Nokia Group prudently and pragmatically to create value for Nokia shareholders."

Vodafone has finally confirmed the deal that has been rumoured for weeks, and expected for years — that it is selling its 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless.

The company is receiving US$130 billion for the stake, significantly higher than the US$100 billion it was estimated to be worth, but close to the amount thought necessary to secure Vodafone shareholder approval.

The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year – pending the usual regulatory approvals.

Vodafone is receiving US$58.9 billion in cash and US$60.2 billion in Verizon shares. Verizon has the right to increase the cash portion of the total consideration by up to US$15 billion, and to decrease the number of Verizon shares to be issued accordingly.

At completion, Vodafone shareholders are expected to receive all the Verizon shares and US$23.9 billion of cash totalling US$84 billion, representing 71 per cent of the net proceeds.

That the shareholders are receiving the Verizon shares is a surprise, as it had been expected that Vodafone would hold onto them, partly to profit from later sales, and partly to thwart any takeover by a US company.

As part of the deal, Vodafone will acquire Verizon’s 23 per cent minority interest in Vodafone Italy for US$3.5 billion, thereby securing full ownership of the Italian subsidiary.

If the deal falls apart due to problems by either of the two companies, then the two companies have onerous break-up fees ranging from US$1.55 billon to as much as US$10 billion if Verizon is unable to raise the funds for the cash component of the deal.

However, Verizon says that it has already secured US$61 billion as a bridging loan to pay for the deal.

Vodafone said that it also intends to implement a new organic investment programme, Project Spring, which will see further investments of GBP6 billion (US$9.33 billion) over the next three financial years to speed up the deployment of 4G services and boost 3G coverage.

Assuming completion of the transactions, Vodafone intends to increase the final dividend per share (post-consolidation) by eight per cent, while Verizon is lifting its dividend by 2.9 per cent.

Approximately three million SIM cards have been suspended in the UAE after users failed to register them before the cut-off deadline.

Suspension means that a mobile subscriber cannot make an outgoing call but can receive incoming calls and text messages.

"The licensees suspended the service for almost three million subscribers who were late in updating their information during the last phases of the campaign." noted the TRA director general, Mohamed Al Ghanim.

In addition, over the past four phases of the registration process around two million SIM cards have been permanently disconnected after being suspended for three months.

A fifth phase, out of six by the telecom regulator and the mobile networks has now started, targeting around four million more accounts to require them to register their identification with the mobile networks.

The aim is to complete the entire process by the start of next year.

Zain’s Saudi Arabian subsidiary has announced that its CEO, Fraser Curley has resigned from the company with immediate effect – citing personal reasons.

The company said that it is naming Hassan Kabbani as its new CEO.

Kabbani joins Zain KSA at a crucial stage of the company’s evolution. With 23 years of executive telecommunications experience in the Middle East and Africa, Kabbani joins Zain with very strong credentials. To date, he has held the post of CEO of five successful telecommunications operations, playing a pivotal role in business transformation, and helping them to achieve extraordinary growth.

Kabbani headed mobile operations within the Orascom Telecom Group in Egypt, Algeria, sub-Saharan Africa, Yemen, and Syria, and prior to these leadership roles held key commercial and customer focused roles in France Telecom Mobile Lebanon. Most recently he was advisor to the chairman and board member of Oger Telecom, as well as a board member of Cell C in South Africa.

The Namibian mobile network operator, Leo has adopted the brand name of its landline operator parent, Telecom Namibia and is to be known as TN Mobile.

Telecom Namibia managing director Frans Ndoroma said his company acquired Powercom, which traded as Leo last year and the board of directors and management decided to give it a new brand; TN Mobile.

The former Leo website is already redirecting visitors to the Telecom Namibia website.

Leo was owned by Telecel Globe, a subsidiary of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and was sold to a consortium of banks for US$60 million in 2011, before being bought by Telecom Namibia, for a reportedly paltry amount in November 2012.

Telecom Namibia is 100 per cent owned by the government and competes with MTC, which has a 90 per cent market share of the mobile market, and is also 64 per cent owned by the government.