Microsoft to buy Nokia smartphone business?

A report released to clients by Danske bank today suggests that popular Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia is thinking about selling off its smartphone business to Microsoft. It is well known that Nokia and Microsoft’s business partnership goes back a long way. BGR came across the report released by Denmark’s largest bank.

As a result of the bank’s report, the market is abuzz with rumours about Nokia’s decision. According to Danske bank, Nokia plans to sell off its smartphone manufacturing arm to Microsoft as early as the first half of 2012. According to BGR, the bank raised its rating on Nokia stock to Buy from Hold and shares rose by over 3% when the news broke.

This is not the first time that rumours about Microsoft and Nokia’s business plans have surfaced. Since May of this year, reports about negotiations between the two have been making the rounds of the tech world. Nokia, on its part, has been religiously denying all reports of its rumoured future plans. This time too, an official Nokia spokesperson said, “We put these rumours to rest a long time ago.”

Whether or not this latest rumour holds true remains to be seen. Either way, the partnership between Microsoft and Nokia seems be working well for them as well as for the tech world at large. Microsoft has given Nokia a leg up in the smartphone business and Nokia has given Microsoft an edge to help it compete against some of its biggest competitors including Apple and Google. It will be interesting to see what this partnership grows into, in the future. It looks like the tech world is in for some major overhauls next year.