Nokia used to dominate the mobile phone industry. However, it has struggled in recent years when the smartphone market has intensified. Companies such as Samsung and Apple have produced phones that carry the Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems which software developers now prefer. While the Finnish company has its share of smartphones running on Windows, it simply cannot match the prowess of their Asian and American counterparts.

However, they are trying to boost their operations by recently purchasing 50 percent of their network operations partnership with Siemens for 1.7 billion euros. The transaction will be completed by the third quarter of 2013 and the operation will then be fully owned by Nokia Corporation. Chief Operating Officer Stephen Elop said that the attractiveness of their high-speed data makes the purchase an intelligent move to boost the company's financial status.

The sale has been approved by both the Nokia Corporation Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board of Siemens. From the total purchase amount, 1.2 billion will be paid via cash while remaining half a billion will be in the form of a loan from Siemens with payments due 12 months after the deal is finalized.

In April 2007, the Nokia Networks Business Group and their counterpart department for the Siemens' mobile networks merged to form the Nokia Siemens Group. It first catered to mobile networks but it has refocused its operations to mobile broadband due to the loosening grip of the two companies in the mobile phone industry.

The turning points of the partnership came in 2008 when they purchased both Ethernet-building company Atrica and mobile network customer tools provider Apertio which then catered to Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and Hutchison 3G subscribers. While the partnership had its legal ending in April 2013, both entities carried on with the operations until they came up with a sound exit strategy.

The purchase aims to reduce the company's expenses by $1.35 billion by the end of 2013. However, this will have some negative repercussions as 17,000 employees will be laid off at year's end. Currently, Nokia Corporation has savings that will amount to $1 billion and it will use Nokia Siemens for financial reporting.

Despite the massive workforce reduction, the people on top will remain as Rajeev Suri continues to be the Chief Operating Officer while Jesper Ovesen is the Executive Chairman for the Board of Directors. Its headquarters will also remain at the Nokia main office in Espoo, Finland but it will be expanding its operations in Germany.

Likewise, the Siemens brand will be dropped from the current company name and a new one will be revealed once the deal is finalized. Also, the boost in revenue couldn't come in a better time for their mobile phone sales are at the lowest in 13 years in terms of quarterly sales. On the other hand, Siemens Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser said that the company will continue to work on its investments in infrastructure, health care and energy production.

Perhaps this is recent move to diversify Nokia's portfolio is an indication that it would be hard to topple down Apple Incorporated and Samsung Electronics from the peak of the smartphone industry. With Apple releasing the iPhone 5, Samsung responded with the Samsung Galaxy S4.