Trolltech — the Norwegian company behind Qt — is being bought out by cell-phone manufacturer Nokia in a deal valued at $153 million.

The deal will provide Nokia — the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world — with control of Trolltech's Qtopia, a platform for embedded Linux cell phones and other devices. The deal has already been accepted by Trolltech's board and shareholders, who will receive NOK 16 (Norwegian krona) or about $2.94 per share. In a very positive move, Nokia has announced they plan to continue releasing Trolltech's products under both commercial and open-source licenses — an issue which has played an important part in the history of KDE, which extensively utilizes Qt. No word yet on whether they will honor Trolltech's pledge to adopt the GPL3 — which includes restrictions on software patent deals — for future releases.

While the deal certainly seems done, and the shareholders are already pledging their shares, the ink isn't quite dry yet — the terms and conditions are still under work, and it won't likely close until at least the second quarter.

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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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