-Finnish Digia acquires Nokia's Qt licensing business.

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2011 M2 COMMUNICATIONS

7 March 2011 - Finnish IT company Digia Oyj (HEL:DIG1V) signed today an agreement with mobile-phone major Nokia Oyj (HEL:NOK1V) to acquire the commercial licensing and service business related to Nokia's Qt technology.

The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Nokia will continue to develop the Qt technology, while Digia will be responsible for its commercial licensing and service business. The transfer, which will cover 3,500 commercial Qt customers, is expected to take place by the end of March.

Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface (GUI).

In connection with the deal, Digia will employ 19 persons from Nokia in Oslo and in Silicon Valley in the USA. Digia will also set up two subsidiaries, Digia Norway AS and Digia USA Inc.

The transaction is expected to have neutral effect on Digia's earnings in 2011 due to takeover costs and deferred sales, the Finnish company said.

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