Microsoft, Nokia could close their multibillion dollar deal by April

If you’ve been wondering when Microsoft’s US$7.1-billion buyout of Nokia’s handset business will finally go through, we’re now that much closer to actually knowing.

Nokia today issued a statement saying that it hopes the deal, which was first announced in September last year, will close by April.

The announcement comes on the back of a similar post from Microsoft, in which it says that the two companies “are nearing the final stages of our global regulatory approval process”.

According to Nokia, the problem lies with “antitrust authorities in Asia which are still conducting their reviews”.

It is careful to point out however that its ongoing tax proceedings in India will most likely have no bearing on the timing of the closing of the deal.

As TechCrunch points out, both companies would have been hoping to push the deal through sooner.

For one, the delay will most likely dent the confidence of analysts and investors. On Microsoft’s part, it means having to wait that much longer before Stephen Elop can take up his position as the head of its significantly larger hardware division.

Nokia meanwhile will be unable to count the deal in its Q1 results as it hoped to. All in all though, it looks like the Finnish company will eventually get its money and a future without Elop.