Apple Paid Nokia $2 Billion in Cash to Settle Patent Dispute

According to the most noteworthy talking points made during its recent quarterly earnings call, Nokia received a whopping $2 billion in cash from Apple to settle the companies’ roughly six-month patent dispute, which began back in December of 2016 when Nokia sued Apple over the latter’s alleged unlicensed use of the former’s technology in a variety of products including iPhone and iPad.

The feud, which was relatively short-lived in comparison to most intellectual property lawsuits lodged against the Silicon Valley tech-giant in recent years, ultimately led to Apple removing Nokia’s line of Withing’s Home products from its website and retail store shelves. While the six-month debacle was interspersed with the typical array of fiery courtroom antics, it was resolved on a relatively positive note around the end of May 2017, when the two companies announced a joint “patent license and business cooperation agreement.” Under the terms of this new agreement, Nokia, moving forward, will provide Apple with “certain network infrastructure products and services” in exchange for Apple reinstating Nokia’s line of Withing’s Home products for sale via Apple’s retail and online store channels and, more significantly, this mountain of cash to keep the Finnish-company at bay.

“Tech’s net sales were up 90% year-over-year, while operating margin was 16 percentage points higher, mostly as a result of the multi-year patent licensing deal we signed with Apple,” Nokia said, according to a transcript of the call which was published on Seeking Alpha. “We got a substantial upfront cash payment of €1.7 billion ($1.998 billion) from Apple, strengthening further our cash position,” added Nokia’s Chief Financial Officer, Kristian Pullola.

According to the terms of their new agreement, the “extensive business collaboration” between Nokia and Apple will also provide the former with “a meaningful uplift in IP Routing, Optical Networks and Digital Health business units over time,” the company added.

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