What’s behind Nokia’s odd refusal to reveal the length of its Windows licensing deal?

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Nokia (NOK) this week revealed that it will end up paying €500 million — about $650 million — in net Windows Phone licensing fees to Microsoft (MSFT) over the remaining contract period. At the moment, the platform support fees Microsoft pays to Nokia are larger than the licensing fees that flow to the opposite direction. This will soon reverse and by the time the Nokia-Microsoft contract expires, Nokia will end up paying $650 million to Microsoft. This raises two questions: What is the remaining contract period and what happens after that? Of course, having a lump sum licensing fee like this is highly unusual in the handset industry. Usually companies pay a licensing fee per handset. The defined lump sum is meant

 

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