Nokia Buys OZ Communications To Offer Instant Messaging On Nokia Handsets.

OZ currently has 5.5m monthly paid users and has raised over $70m in funding from Vantage Point, Wellington Financial, Quebec Soliditary Fund, Deutsche Bank and more.
This is not Nokia’s first power purchases in the past 4 years. They purchased Intellisync to take on RIM in 2005 for $450m which flopped, and recently mapping giant NavTeq which it bought for $8.1b in July.
Om Malik says Nokia’s past should give us an idea of the chances this deal will be lucrative.

jason

Even though Nokia hasn’t suceeded with its acquisitions in the past, this one seems like a win win for them. By using this technology to power instant messaging on all of the low end phones they manufacture,it could keep their market share strong in places where Nokia is still King (Asia, South America, etc.) Let’s not forget about thier Acquisiton of NavTeq, which hopefully will pay off for them in the future. Don’t see how you could quite lose with that one either, it just may take a while to realize a solid return. Nokia competing in push technologies may not have been the best timing for them, since that really isn’t their space and is not what they are known for. Even though everyone knows the N82 is damn well underappreciated in the US and combined with push technologies can compete with RIM anyday. Oh well