Not everyone may agree, but some of the most important decisions Ballmer has made were at the start of his career at Microsoft, and the ones that he is making at the very end of it.
The CEO of the company is set to retire within the next 12 months.
And prior to his retirement, he has been busy reorganizing the technology titan and also striking some absolutely vital deals. The Nokia acquisition could potentially turn out to be a masterstroke a few years down the road, and a positive note in Ballmer’s legacy.
But while Microsoft already enjoys a very close relationship with Nokia, both companies cannot work any closer before the $7.17 billion deal is officially closed. Plus, there is the slimmest of possibilities that it may not go through.
Both companies, however, do not want to lose any time. Nokia will receive around $2 billion from Microsoft in the very near future to pay for some current expenses.
Nokia made the announcement late Friday, revealing that Microsoft offered the company 1.5 billion euros (round about $2 billion) of financing as part of the deal to buy the devices and services division.
The money is in the form of three convertible bonds — each valued at 500 million euros.
A part of this amount will be used by the company to pay for the financing it raised a few months backs for its buyout of the Nokia Siemens Network. And according to Nokia, the rest of the bonds will be reserved to pay for general corporate purposes.
If the Microsoft deal does fall through, however, Nokia will have to pay the money back over a period of several years. That, or Redmond will receive the equivalent in Nokia stock.
