Nokia delays handset sale to Microsoft

Finnish telecom company Nokia on Monday said the sale of its handset business to US technology giant Microsoft would be delayed by a few weeks until April 2014.

Nokia said that it continued to make progress with Microsoft in the closing conditions and the integration planning, but was still waiting for the approval of “certain antitrust authorities in Asia which are still conducting their reviews”.

The European Commission already approved the takeover of the mobile phone business in December, seeing “only modest overlaps” between the two companies.

Once the world leader in mobile phones, Nokia lost its top place to South Korea’s Samsung in 2012.