Nokia and Trolltech ASA announced that they have entered into an agreement that Nokia will make a public voluntary tender offer to acquire Trolltech, a company headquartered in Oslo, Norway and publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Nokia aims to continue the development of Trolltech's products and support of new and existing customers. Nokia strives for an open approach to technology that will encourage and support innovation in the industry, enable fast adoption of new technologies and advance healthy competition.
Nokia embraces open source technology and will take further the open source development culture found in Trolltech. Trolltech is a recognized software provider with world-class software development platforms and frameworks. In addition to the key software assets, its talented team will play an important role in accelerating the implementation of Nokia's softwarestrategy. 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.
Nokia will offer NOK 16 per share in cash. The board of directors of Trolltech has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept Nokia's Offer. Holders of 35,024,830 shares, representing approximately 66,43 % of Trolltech's issued shares and votes have as of January 27, 2008 irrevocably undertaken to accept the Offer. Haavard Nord, Vuonislahti Invest AS, Teknoinvest and certain funds managed by Index Ventures are among the shareholders who have agreed to tender their shares to Nokia.
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.
Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia commented: "The technology landscape evolves and, for Nokia, software plays a major role in our growth strategy for devices, PCs and the 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. Trolltech's deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40."
Nokia intends to continue to enhance Trolltech products through active and ongoing development, for both desktop and mobile. 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. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including acceptance by shareholders representing more than 90 % of the fully diluted share capital, and the necessary regulatory approvals. The complete details of the offer, including all terms and conditions, will be set forth in an offer document expected to be sent to Trolltech shareholders within two weeks.
Jolly Technologies, the identity software company, and Keri Systems, the provider of mid-sized access control systems, announced a joint partnership that will provide an integrated version of Jolly's ID Flow ID card software with Keri's access control systems. A seventeen-year player in the Access Control market, Keri has become one of the largest independent suppliers of security solutions in the world, emphasizing exception customer service.
