Trolltech Acquisition Will Aid Nokia's Software Strategy

Nokia today announced that it has entered into an agreement to make a public voluntary tender offer to acquire Trolltech, a company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Trolltech is a recognized software provider whose talented team is expected play an important role in accelerating the implementation of Nokia's software strategy.

The acquisition of Trolltech will enable Nokia to 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 will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs.

Nokia's software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C.

"For Nokia, software plays a major role in our growth strategy for devices, PCs and integration with the Internet. We continue to focus on areas where we can differentiate and add more value. Common cross-platform layers on top of our software platforms attract innovation and enable Web 2.0 technologies in the mobile space," said Kai Öistämö, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia.

"Trolltech's deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40," he added.

"Trolltech and Nokia share the goal of accelerating the adoption of Trolltech's Qt-based technology in the commercial market and in the open source community," said Haavard Nord, CEO and founder of Trolltech.

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.