Nokia sells corporate headquarters, overshadowing a smartphone launch

Nokia has announced the sale of its global headquarters in Espoo, Finland, for €170 million, overshadowing the launch of a new low-cost smartphone.

In October, SmartCompany reported the Finnish phone giant first confirmed it was planning to sell its corporate headquarters and then lease back its offices as part of a global cost cutting strategy.

According to Reuters, the company has confirmed the sale of the building to Finnish real estate firm Exilion, with the phone giant signing a long-term lease for its offices as part of the deal.

The news overshadowed the announcement of the company’s low-cost Windows Phone 8-based Lumia 620 smartphones.

According to CNet, the new handsets, which feature the return of snap-on covers, are aimed at teenagers and are likely to be one of the cheapest Windows Phone 8 smartphones on the market with a US outright price tag of just $US249.

They feature a dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm S4 processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, NFC and a 3.8-inch WVGA display. The new smartphones are expected to be released in the Australian market during the early part of 2013.