Digia has signed an agreement to acquire Qt software technology and business from Nokia

Thursday, Aug 09, 2012

Digia Plc. (DIG1V) has signed an agreement with Nokia to acquire Qt software technologies and Qt business from Nokia. Following the acquisition, Digia will be responsible for all the Qt activities formerly carried out by Nokia, including R&D, commercial and open-source licensing and services business. The transaction is expected to close during Q3 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

Since Digia acquired the Qt Commercial licensing business from Nokia in March 2011, the operation has been successful and grown substantially.

In order to enhance its position within the Qt ecosystem, Digia now plans to acquire the remaining Qt software technology and business from Nokia, including technologies, copyright and trademarks as well as Qt people. Following the close of the transaction, Digia plans to bring Qt to other popular operating systems Android, iOS and Windows 8.

As part of the transaction, a maximum of 125 employees will transfer to Digia. Most are located in Oslo, Norway and Berlin, Germany, with others in the USA and Finland. Transferring employees will join local Digia subsidiaries in Norway, Finland and USA whereas in Germany Digia will establish a new subsidiary.

Digia forecasts the impact of this transaction to 2012 revenues to be slightly positive and earnings neutral. In the following years, Digia estimates the Qt business will continue to grow profitably. This business transaction will significantly strengthen Digia’s product business and supports Digia's strategic objective to grow internationally.

Qt has been used by over 450,000 developers and thousands of leading companies worldwide in over 70 industries to power the most innovative, mission-critical and renowned applications and UIs. Commercially licensed Qt is a leader in a number of key market segments including automotive, medical, advanced visualization & animation, industrial automation and aerospace & defense. In the future, Digia expects that Qt will have a key role bringing world-class user experiences and user interfaces to embedded systems and consumer electronics.

Digia aims to expand the Qt business by focusing on overall cross platform support of Qt, with the intent to build the leading cross platform application framework across desktop, embedded and mobile operating systems.

Source: Digia Plc.