Nokia hands over headquarters to Microsoft

.

Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia said today it would hand over its headquarters outside Helsinki to US software giant Microsoft, which has acquired the group's mobile business.

The building is located in Espoo, a suburb of the capital.

According to Nokia, most of the staff in the building work for the mobile division, which explains why it will house the Microsoft offices after the transaction is completed.

The employees who remain at Nokia, now focused on the telecom business, will be transferred to other buildings in Espoo.

Nokia's headquarters, a symbol of Finnish economic success in the 1990s and 2000s, will now also be a reminder of the fall of what was once the world's biggest mobile phone maker.

Dubbed the "Nokia House", the building was built by the Baltic Sea in the 1990s, at a time when the booming mobile phone market seemed to grant the company a promising future.

In December last year, loss-making Nokia sold it to a real estate company, but agreed to lease it back on a long-term basis.

On Tuesday, Nokia's shareholders approved the sale of the mobile phone business to Microsoft for 5.44 billion euros (USD 7.30 billion), hoping that the deal will get the company back on the profit track.