Nokia Announces Sale of It Symbian Services Unit to Accenture

Technology consulting firm Accenture has agreed to buy a unit of Nokia responsible for servicing the Symbian smartphone operating system that Nokia has given to an open-source foundation.

Photo: Nokia Announces Sale of It Symbian Services Unit to Accenture

Nokia Announces Sale of It Symbian Services Unit to Accenture

The parties did not disclose the price on Friday that Accenture would pay for the business, which has about 165 staff who provide customer support and engineering for Symbian, the world's most popular smartphone system , Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, Nokia announced the imminent sale of it Symbian Professional Services unit to Accenture – a company considered to be one of the largest consulting firms in the world.

The Symbian Professional Services unit is currently responsible “for Symbian OS customer engineering and customer support”.

More exactly, the unit provides services like advanced error diagnosis and repair, turnkey software development services, and techniques for enhancing performance, power and memory.

Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction between Nokia and Accenture should be finalized by the end of Q3 2009 , Unwired View reports.

Approximately 165 Nokia professional services engineers and consultants in the United Kingdom, Finland, Japan, Korea and Australia are expected to transfer to Accenture as a result of the agreement.

“The acquisition of the Symbian professional services unit will enhance Accenture’s existing embedded software, product-development and testing skills to help players in the mobile solutions ecosystem address ever-more-demanding time-to-market and quality requirements,” said Jean Laurent Poitou, managing director of Accenture’s Electronics & High Tech industry group. “The capabilities we are acquiring from Nokia will help support the tremendous growth our clients can expect from the explosive adoption of converged mobile multimedia services and will expand Accenture’s role as a key supplier of new tools, products and solutions to clients in this industry.” , Business Wire reports.