Nokia Press Bulletin Board

Nokia yesterday began communicating to Trolltech shareholders its voluntary cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of Trolltech ASA at NOK 16 per share. Trolltech’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer. The intention to launch the voluntary tender offer was announced on 28 January 2008.

JOINT RELEASE OF NOKIA AND ITS GERMAN EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATIVES 

Today Nokia and its employee representatives started negotiations on Nokia’s plan to close its Bochum site. Representatives of Nokia management in Germany and employee representatives met for an initial meeting and agreed to continue the negotiations over the coming weeks. The aim of the negotiations is to reach socially responsible, acceptable and fair solutions for the Nokia employees affected by the company’s closure plan.  

After the initial meeting ended, both parties confirmed that “the start of the negotiations was conducted in a good and open atmosphere with the shared aim to reach a satisfactory solution for all parties concerned as soon as possible”. 

It is mutually understood that these negotiations are to be conducted in a confidential manner and any further information about important steps or certain outcomes of the negotiations will be provided as soon as any important milestones are reached.  

Leading the negotiations from the employer side is Klaus Goll, Managing Director and Director of Labor Relations for Nokia in Germany, and from the employee representatives side is Werner Hammer, head of the Germany works council.

Nokia has submitted its statement to North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Bank today regarding subsidies received back in 1998/99. The statement, which Nokia compiled after having access to the records of the NRW Bank and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the State of NRW, underlines Nokia’s strong view that it has acted according to the terms of the subsidy grant, and any attempt by NRW Bank and the NRW government to recall subsidies is without merit. 

Without a doubt, Nokia created jobs at the Bochum factory: since 2001 Bochum has employed an annual average of some 3,200 Nokia and third-party employees. The conditions of the state aid granted to Nokia for the expansion of the Bochum plant in 1998/1999 called for Nokia to provide 2,860 jobs, thus Nokia over-fulfilled those job creation requirements. 

Throughout the period in question Nokia submitted via Deutsche Bank documents to NRW Bank in an open and transparent manner, disclosing all relevant facts including information on types and number of jobs created as well as on how the subsidies were used. Based on this, and based on some documents filed in the records Nokia has been able to review, Nokia assumes that all parties had a similar understanding about the job creation status and terms, and all agreed that Nokia had fulfilled all the terms. Until January 2008, no concerns were raised about Nokia’s reports to the company, neither from NRW Bank nor the NRW government.  

As previously communicated Nokia also made significant investments in Bochum. Since 1999 it has invested more than 350 million euros in the site, well above the amount stipulated in the agreement.

JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT 

The working group established by Nokia and Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) government met for the first time today following Nokia’s January 15, 2008 announcement that it plans to close its site in Bochum. 

During the meeting the parties discussed a number of ideas on how Nokia and the NRW government could encourage and support employment initiatives and entrepreneurial activities in the Bochum area. The purpose of these discussions is to find ways to create alternative employment opportunities for affected Nokia employees as soon as possible. This was the first of several such meetings the two parties expect to have on the matter. 

“We welcome the formation of this working group, which has shown us that Nokia sincerely wants to contribute to the future development of the Bochum area,” said Dr. Jens Baganz, NRW Secretary of State. “The activities of Nokia and the NRW government will contribute to the economic development activities that we have been conducting in the region for many years.” 

“Nokia expects to continue discussing with representatives from Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal German government in order to find good solutions for the future of the Nokia employees,” said Kristian Pullola, Nokia. “It is important now that this working group with the NRW government takes decisive action in order to produce concrete proposals that we can start implementing promptly.” 

The NRW team will be headed by Dr. Jens Baganz. The other NRW representatives in the working group are Dr. Patrick Opdenhoevel, NRW Minister-President’s Office, Head of Division Government Coordination; Marina Weichhardt-Hilgers, NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, Head of Unit Preservation of Enterprises; David Scrimgeour, Consultant, Munich; and Dr. Martin Grimm, Real Estate Consultant, Essen. 

The Nokia team will be headed by Kristian Pullola, Vice President & Nokia Treasurer. The other Nokia representatives are Juha Äkräs, Senior Vice President, Human Resources; Michael Bueltmann, Senior Legal Counsel, Nokia GmbH; and Maximilian Kammerer, Vice President, Customer Care. The Nokia team reports to Rick Simonson, Nokia’s Chief Financial Officer and a member of the company’s Group Executive board. Mr. Simonson, who has significant experience in supporting industrial and technology initiatives in their different phases, has been appointed by Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo to oversee Nokia’s future role in the region. 

The NRW government and Nokia have been receiving expressions of interest from investors, both German and foreign. Potential investors should make contact with either NRW officials or Nokia directly.

The parties had a constructive discussion about the future of Nokia’s Bochum site and agreed to start the negotiations on February 20, 2008 
 
Nokia’s Germany Works Council representatives met with Nokia senior managers in Helsinki today to discuss Nokia’s earlier announced plans to close its Bochum site.

During the discussions, which were conducted in a constructive spirit, the parties discussed the forthcoming negotiations between the Nokia Germany Works Council and Nokia’s management in Germany, while employee representatives presented several alternatives for the future of the Bochum site. These included increased automatization in production and a change of focus for the Bochum site. Nokia’s management concluded that the proposed alternatives were not feasible and would not meet the required efficiency targets or support Nokia’s overall strategy.

In the meeting various options for employment in Bochum were discussed. Works Council representatives and Nokia shared the aim of finding innovative solutions for the future of the Nokia employees in Bochum. Both parties agreed that the key focus will be to find alternative employment for Nokia’s Bochum personnel in companies that are well-established and have long-term business targets.

Both Nokia and the Nokia Germany Works Council representatives agreed that their close collaboration about new employment opportunities will continue. As a next step, a working group comprising representatives from Nokia and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will meet on February 14, 2008 to discuss innovative solutions for the future of of the Nokia site in Bochum.

Nokia has released a short video showing a new concept from our design team exploring how recycled materials could be used to make mobiles in the future. 

The idea behind the “remade” concept was to see if it was possible to create a device made from nothing new. It has been designed using recycled materials that avoid the need for natural resources, reduce landfill, and allow for more energy efficient production.

It is made out of metals from upcycled aluminum cans, plastics from drink bottles form the chassis, and its rubber key mats are provided by old car tyres. Inside the phone are new more environmentally friendly technologies such as printed electronics, and the graphics used on the display save energy without compromising on style.

Remade is a concept that explores potential new ideas for the future, and is part of Nokia’s ongoing work looking at how it can help people make more sustainable choices. It is designed to help inspire and stimulate discussion on how mobile devices might be made in the future.

Check out the video and some pictures at Ovi Share

Nokia unveiled a bunch of exciting new devices and services today at the opening of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

Reaffirming our leadership in convergence, we announced the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic and Nokia 6210 Navigator, which variously offer location-based and multimedia experiences such as pedestrian navigation, geotagging, movie viewing, and media sharing.

On the services side we announced the Beta version of Nokia Maps 2.0, with multimedia city guides, satellite images and a redesigned user interface. Nokia Maps 2.0 adds ‘Walk’, a pedestrian focused navigation component, while still offering ‘Drive’, a world class car navigation system. ‘Walk’ efficiently guides you from A to B with visual turn-by-turn guidance and information about surrounding buildings, streets and pathways through parks.

We also unveiled the next step towards our Ovi environment by introducing ‘Share on Ovi’, a personal media sharing community that makes it easy to upload, manage and share personal media. ‘Share on Ovi’ is designed for more than 100 different media types and offers unlimited storage and unlimited monthly uploads. To sign up for an account go to http://share.ovi.com.

Click here for more on the launches.

Nokia today announced that it has started mobile device production at its factory in Cluj, thus reaching an important milestone in the company’s investment in Romania.

Marking the start of production, Juha Putkiranta, Senior Vice President, Demand Supply Network Management, made a call to the Ambassador of Finland to Romania, H.E. Tapio Saarela. Mr. Putkiranta was proud to announce that the device he was talking on was a Nokia 1200 – the first Nokia device made in Romania. Mr. Marius Nicoara, President of the Cluj County Council, and Mr. Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj, as well as other distinguished guests from Cluj and the county were present at the event, together with local Nokia employees.

Nokia‘s decision to establish a new plant in Romania was announced in spring 2007 as a reflection of the strong mobile device volume growth in the Eastern European and African markets. The Cluj area was chosen based on a number of factors, including the availability of skilled labor, the good inbound and outbound logistics, the industrial tradition of the area and the opportunity to set up an industrial village with Nokia suppliers and partners.

”We are happy to see that there are people in Romania who share our vision and are very excited to come and work at Nokia; we have new employees joining us every week” said Putkiranta. ”The Cluj factory will become an important part of our global demand supply network and will be operating according to the processes, quality requirements and standards common to all our factories”.

Construction at the site began in July 2007 and the first phase was ready in a record time of seven months. The plant is expected to be inaugurated during the third quarter of this year. Nokia is expected to employ 500 people in Cluj during the first phase of production ramp-up and 3,500 people by the end of 2009.

Nokia has today introduced a camera-free variant of the Nokia E51, the popular Eseries device aimed at business users. The new device, which features all the same powerful functionality for businesses as Nokia E51, was developed in response to demand from professionals who require a high performing mobile device, but work in industries where security reasons restrict the use of cameras.  The camera-free Nokia E51 is expected to begin shipping in the 1st quarter of 2008 with an estimated retail price of 250€, before subsidies or taxes.  

The Nokia E51 is ideal for people working in industries and institutions such as automotive, research laboratories or governmental organizations.  

From powerful voice capability, such as long battery life (13 days standby) to 3G, WLAN and HSDPA connectivity ensuring quick access to emails and web content, the Nokia E51 has all the features you would expect from an impressive business device. It is simple to use with one-touch keys taking the user directly to, ‘contacts’, ‘email’, ‘calendar’ or ‘home’ – one short press accesses the function and one long press on the key creates a new contact, email or appointment.   

In addition, the camera-free Nokia E51 features integration with a wide range of business email solutions, including Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email and Mail for Exchange to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server, and consumer email, all for a streamlined email reading experience with easy access to attachments.  

A complete list of Nokia E51 features and technical specifications can be found at www.nokiaforbusiness.com 

Related photos in print quality can be found at www.nokia.com/press/photos

Nokia 3120 classic key features:

• Familiar Nokia design with an intuitive user interface, large tactile keypad, a great quality 2” QVGA display

• 2 megapixel camera with flash, as well as a video conference camera

• Music player with up to 4GB of memory and support for most common formats (MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, etc.) 

• Push email client and instant messaging

• Delicious colors including graphite, plum/powder white, deep red and chestnut brown

• 3G connectivity for fast and easy download, web browsing and video streaming

A full list of features is available at www.nokia.com/press/materials 
Related photos in print quality can be found at www.nokia.com/press/photos