Digia has signed an agreement with Nokia to acquire the Qt commercial licensing and services business. Through the proposed acquisition, around 3500 desktop and embedded customer companies from various industries are targeted to be transferred to Digia. The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of March 2011. Nokia will continue to invest in future development of Qt for the benefit of all users, both Commercial and LGPL.
More after the break...
As a result, the commercial licensing and service operations business is to be run by Digia, with existing and new commercial customers, who will benefit from the continuity of development of desktop and embedded Qt functionality and new service models. Building on Digia’s leading Qt expertise, this acquisition further accelerates Digia’s direction towards international, product based business and significantly widens Digia’s Qt customer base. To further strengthen its global presence, Digia will establish subsidiaries in USA and Norway as part of the transaction.
Global growth with Qt Commercial (Qt commercial licensing and services)
The use of Qt as an application and UI framework has been growing since Nokia’s acquisition of Trolltech in 2008. Qt is actively used by around 3500 desktop and embedded customer companies which will be transferred to Digia upon closing. The commercial customers represent a broad range of industries, e.g. consumer electronics, finance, aviation, energy, defence and media. Qt usage has increased the need for solid commercial support and services executed with strong focus. Digia’s additional investment in Qt Commercial licensing and services business on top of Nokia’s significant Qt development work creates a solid foundation and additional boost for creating business solutions with Qt, and opportunity for customers to benefit from Digia services.
“Qt continues to be an important technology for Nokia and it is critical that Qt’s growth and success can continue. While Nokia will continue to invest in developing Qt as a cross-platform framework for mobile, desktop and embedded segments, focusing on open source development and expansion, we wanted a partner who can drive the commercial licensing and services business around Qt. Digia has proven, in-depth Qt expertise, operational excellence and a keen interest in growing and improving the overall Qt community and so well positioned to expand the Qt Commercial licensing and services business,” says Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Head of MeeGo, Qt and Webkit at Nokia.
“We are excited to extend our Qt business to serve our new customers. Building on our in-depth Qt expertise and experience from demanding mission critical solutions, we will offer world-class commercial licensing and support services to Qt Commercial customers. We also look forward to driving further the evolution of Qt by bringing in new features and services,” says Harri Paani, Senior Vice President from Digia.
No comments:
Post a Comment