Back in 2013, Microsoft announced their plans to acquire Nokia’s mobile division The Redmond company paid a whopping $7.17 billion for the Finnish company and given the magnitude and implications of the acquisition, safe to say that many regulators around the world in which the companies operated had to take a look at the sale.
Over in the US, the sale was officially concluded in April of 2014 but it seems that in South Korea, the country was still resisting greenlighting the deal, at least until now where South Korea’s regulatory board, the Fair Trade Commission, has finally given the deal the OK. However their approval does come with some strings attached.
For starters it will be under review for the next 21 months, meaning that while Microsoft might have concluded the deal in 2014 in other parts of the world, their approval from South Korea might only come in 2017. The FTC will also be keeping an eye on Microsoft and could potentially revoke their approval should they find that Microsoft is abusing their patents.
This is in line with the FTC’s earlier concerns that Microsoft might use their newly acquired patents to prevent companies such as Samsung and LG from being competitive, although the FTC has since denied accusations of protectionism.