中國批准微軟收購在華諾基亞手機業務

The main regulatory hurdle that prevented Microsoft completing the takeover of Nokia’s handset and services businesses in the first quarter has been overcome, with China approving the deal.

隨着中國批准相關交易，阻礙微軟(Microsoft)在今年第一季度完成對諾基亞(Nokia)手機和服務業務收購的主要監管障礙已被克服。

Nokia shares closed up 5 per cent at 5.59 in Helsinki on the news.

消息傳出之際，諾基亞在赫爾辛基股市的股價收漲5%，至5.59歐元。

Nokia said last month it expected the transaction to close in April, compared to expectations of it doing so in the first quarter, when the 5.4bn deal was first announced last September.

上月，諾基亞表示，預計交易於4月完成。相比之下，去年9月最初宣佈這筆54億歐元的交易時，各方預期交易將在第一季度完成。

While regulatory approval from the European Commission and the US Department of Justice had been received, it cited “pending approvals from certain antitrust authorities in Asia which are still conducting their reviews”.

儘管歐盟委員會(European Commission)和美國司法部(US Department of Justice)之前已批准這筆交易，但諾基亞此前稱，該交易“仍有待某些亞洲反壟斷主管部門的批准，這些部門仍在進行審批”。

It announced today that it had received regulatory approval from the Ministry of Commerce in China, meaning April is still the target. The deal also included Microsoft buying Nokia’s patents.

諾基亞昨日宣佈，已收到中國商務部的監管批准，這意味着4月仍是完成收購的目標。這筆交易還包括微軟購買諾基亞的專利組合。

“The regulatory approval process has involved a thorough review of Nokia’s patent licensing practices by several competition authorities around the world,” the Finnish company said. “During that process, no authority has challenged Nokia’s compliance with [licensing its patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms] or requested that Nokia make changes to its licensing program or royalty terms.”

諾基亞表示：“監管審批過程涉及由全球數個反壟斷主管部門對諾基亞的專利許可實踐進行徹底審查。在此過程中，沒有一家主管部門對諾基亞遵循公平、合理、無歧視的專利許可條款提出挑戰，或是請求諾基亞改變其許可程序或專利授權條款。”

Earlier this month, Microsoft said it would give away its software for smartphones free of charge – an admission that Microsoft has lost the smartphone battle to Google’s Android, which is free, and Apple’s iOS, which is included on the iPhone.

本月早些時候，微軟宣佈將免費提供智能手機軟件，這相當於承認其已在智能手機之戰中輸給了谷歌(Google)本來就免費的安卓(Android)系統和蘋果(Apple)用於iPhone的iOS系統。