Nokia Acquires Trolltech For $153 Million

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK) has acquired Norwegian platform application development provider Trolltech for $153 million.

Trolltech is the developer of Qt, the cross-platform application development framework used for the development of GUI programs and for developing non-GUI programs such as console tools and servers. Qt is used in by Opera, Google Earth and Skype among others.

The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval and final closure, with 66.43% of shareholders having already accepted the bid.

Nokia said that the acquisition will allow it “to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business.” The interesting part (did someone say Android?):

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.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008.

(via Engadget)