Accenture to acquire Nokia's Symbian service experts
In a move that will further increase Symbian's independence from Nokia, the Finnish phone manufacturer has agreed to sell its Symbian Professional Services unit to technology consultant firm Accenture.
The unit is responsible for customer engineering and customer support for Symbian OS, the world's largest operating system for smart phones. About 165 people will be transferred to Accenture as a result of the agreement, the terms of which were not disclosed.
The transaction, announced Friday, is expected to close by the end of the third quarter, according to a press release from Nokia.
Nokia acquired Symbian last year and transferred the operating system to the nonprofit Symbian Foundation. The organization on Thursday announced its take on application distribution--the Symbian Horizon application-publishing platform.
