Microsoft ditches Nokia branding on Lumia devices
The company has decided to drop the Nokia name, but will keep the Lumia branding
Microsoft is to remove the 'Nokia' name from Lumia devices as it takes steps to pretend the smartphone manufacturer never existed.
Although Nokia is now owned by Microsoft, it has managed to keep its name stamped on devices, despite becoming part of the PC manufacturer in April for the princely sum of 4.5 billion.
However, Nokia's networks business, navigation offerings and patent portfolio wasn't bought by Microsoft and will continue to use the Nokia branding.
The over-arching department that owns Nokia is now called Microsoft Mobile and is attempting to focus on providing mobile devices and services to try and compete with Apple.
The announcement was made on Nokia France's Facebook page, swiftly followed by a post on its Twitter account saying the page would soon be changing to 'Microsoft Lumia'.
Microsoft then went on to confirm to tech site The Verge that it would be changing the branding worldwide.
The Nokia/Microsoft acquisition was announced back in September 2013 and in April, it made some significant changes to the original deal, in an attempt to woo Chinese authorities.
Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president of legal and corporate affairs at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post at the time: "We've adjusted this agreement so the 21 employees in China working on mobile phones will join Microsoft and continue their work."
Another change made was that Microsoft would take over Nokia's online assets. Smith continued: "Our two companies have agreed that Microsoft will manage the nokia.com domain and social media sites for the benefit of both companies and our customers for up to a year."
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