HELSINKI (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> will stop designing and manufacturing mobile phones, Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported on its website citing an unnamed source.
A spokesman for Microsoft Finland declined to comment on the report which said the company had invited its Finland-based phone developers to a meeting in Espoo on Wednesday.
The U.S. company entered the phone business in 2014 by buying Finnish firm Nokia’s <NOKIA.HE> once-dominant handset unit for about $7.2 billion.
It failed to turn the business around and took a $7.5 billion writedown last year.
This month Microsoft announced a sale of its entry-level feature phones business for $350 million, but said it would continue to develop its Lumia smartphones.
http://www.oann.com/microsoft-to-quit-mobile-phone-design-manufacturing-finnish-newspaper/
