History of Nokia

Nokia is a Finnish company that since 1995 has become a global leader in the production of cellular phone. For most of its history, Nokia grew as a conglomerate of three very different businesses of which the first was started in the town of Nokia, named after the river running through it.

Nokia is an old Finnish industry; it origin are traced to 1865 when an engineer named Fredrik Idestam built a pulp mill on a river in southwest Finland to produce paper. A small town eventually grew up around this mill site, and a company formed and achieved success in the production of paper and cardboard products.

In 1966 Nokia entered the electronics field. Initially it employed only 460 people and it was the country’s fourth largest employer in electronics. 1966 was also the year that Nokia’s three industries – forest products, rubber, and cable – merged. As late as the early 1980s Nokia was better known as a producer of rubber boots and toilet paper.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Nokia pursued an active acquisition policy and sought a refashion itself in several ways. The company’s strategy sought to develop a corporate structure modeled after General Electric. One of these was the purchase of Luxor, television maker.

Nokia first established itself as a mobile telephone producer with the creation of the NMT zone.

International success finally came in 1984, when the Mobira Talkman, a portable cellular phone, came on the market and captured attention as a result of its innovativeness.

In 1992, Nokia decided on a new radical strategy. Nokia would become a mobile-phone pure play and sell off all other non-mobile phone assets, Nokia’s core business would henceforth be technology, not paper products, and not even computer or television technologies.

This decision came as Nokia launched its 2100 series GSM cell phone, which was an incredible success. Nokia manufactured and sold 20 million. In the year 200o, it was ranked fifth among the world’s 10 most valuable brand names - the only non-American company on the list.

On 2 September 2013, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Nokia's mobile device in a deal worth €3.79bn, together with another €1.65 bn to license Nokia's portfolio of patents for 10 years; a deal totaling at over €5.4bn.
History of Nokia