Nokia acquires Trolltech for $154M

January 29, 2008

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The acquisition will enable Nokia to develop more sophisticated software for its devices, which include mobile phones and desktop applications.

Nokia is supporting open source technology in this move. With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work on the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs.

Trolltech gives away its software to the public under open-source licenses and sells deluxe versions to larger customers like Adobe, Skype and Google - which used Trolltech's software to develop Google Earth mapping service.

The acquisition will allow Nokia to develop applications for multiple platforms from a single source code base, in addition to bringing improvements in device user interface and time-to-market.

According to ABI Research, this move indicates the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer is dedicated to deploying more Linux-based phones into the market. As the world's largest mobile device maker, this can have serious negative implications for operating system Symbian.

Symbian’s share of the OS market will rapidly decline if Nokia starts offering Linux devices, industry watchers say.

Nokia said Trolltech's set of software development tools, called Qt, will enable the creation of new applications compatible with the operating systems on its mobile phones, which include Symbian, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Nokia's S60 platform and the Linux open-source system.

Nokia and Trolltech said they expected the acquisition to be completed in the second quarter of this year.