Microsoft is buying Nokia's devices and services unit for $7.2 billion. The deal is expected to finalize in the year 2014. After the deal, Nokia's current CEO Stephen Elop will join Microsoft. Nokia's chairman Risto Siilasmaa said that though the decision to exit from the mobile business was an emotional one but it made financial and strategic sense too. In the last few years Nokia had been overtaken in the smartphone arena by Samsung and Apple. The decision to take over Nokia is one of the boldest steps taken by Microsoft in the last decade. Microsoft will retain its Mobile Research and Development facility in Finland where 4700 Nokia staff are currently employed. In the deal, Microsoft is buying Nokia's Lumia and Asha brand names for its smartphones. Microsoft has been licensed to use the Nokia brand name on its mobile phones for the next 10 years but this will mean that the Nokia brand will ultimately disappear from handsets bringing an end to the name of the once-dominant player in the market.