Joe Belfiore in Finland to work WITH Nokia on building great phones, NOT acquisition by MS.

Joe Belfiore, who runs the Windows Phone team at Microsoft, recently arrived in Finland sparking speculations from the Finnish media that it’s because Microsoft are buying out Nokia.

This was a tip from Janne yesterday:

Joe Belfiore is in Finland visiting Nokia:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/nokia_kommentoi_microsoft-pomon_juhannusvierailua/6700078

Finnish press speculates it has to do with an acquisition of Nokia smartphone business.

Frankly, to me, the fact that it is Joe Belfiore and not Steve Ballmer (and that Belfiore even tweets about it), suggests that his visit probably isn’t related to an acquisition. I would expect better radio silence and a more higher-up executive in case of acquisition.

Finnish press is often clueless when it comes to analyzing Nokia news.

But hey, you never know!

Jann added:

Joe Belfiore has often visited Nokia in Finland in simply Windows Phone developments, he was even cinemagraphed ice-fishing outside the Nokia House in Finland last winter.

Ali’s reply:

Saw him tweet that before yesterday; seems like a routine visit if you ask me. If they got that far down the roads in terms of acquistion talks and not a soul knew, I doubt this is anything important as you said. Probably going to pick up his EOS in person.

Now speaking of Belfiore’s tweets, he’s aware of the speculations and tries to clarify:

BTW, newsmedia.. I come to Finland regularly to work w/Nokia on actually *building* great phones. HW/SW together in harmony. #normalcy

Still, some could say that’s what Joe Belfiore’s doing and the acquisition rumour/discussion may still be taking place.

Source: JB

Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone