Nokia Sells Qt Licensing And Services

Digia has signed an agreement with Nokia to acquire the Qt commercial licensing and services business from the handset giant.

According to Digia, through the proposed acquisition, approximately 3,500 desktop and embedded-technology customer companies from various industries will be transferred to Digia. The transaction is expected to close by the end of March. Nokia will continue to invest in future development of Qt for the benefit of all users, both commercial and LGPL, the company said.

Continuity of development

Nokia — following its recent agreement with Microsoft to support Windows Phone 7 — had ensured developers that Qt would remain a viable development framework for applications running on Nokia phones.

The news of the sale comes on the heels of releases of Qt Quick, the new Qt SDK 1.1 beta and Qt 4.7.2. However, the Qt community will continue to benefit for years to come from further Nokia investment in Qt, primarily focused on areas such as Qt Quick, Qt WebKit and HTLM5 in addition to the ongoing work of improving performance and stability, Sebastian Nystrom, vice president and head of MeeGo, Qt and WebKit at Nokia, said in a March 7 blog post.

Digia officials said with the sale, existing and new commercial customers would 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 move toward international, product-based business and widens Digia’s Qt customer base. To further strengthen its global presence, Digia will establish subsidiaries in the United States and Norway as part of the transaction.

“The success of Qt has in part been due to a successful dual-license model, providing open LGPL and commercial license alternatives, which have enabled a dynamic community of developers in 70 industries to drive a rapid evolution of the Qt cross-platform application and UI framework,” Nystrom said.

Indeed, many organisations that want to use Qt for their business applications choose commercial licenses, for a variety of reasons, including restrictions in using open-source licensed software in industries such as defense and aerospace, or the need to provide product warranties and indemnities such as in the medical-device industry, Nystrom said. Others choose a commercial relationship for access to Qt professional support and services to ensure successful development of their projects, he added.

Broad range of customers

However, such professional services are not a core business for Nokia. On the other hand, with hundreds of Qt experts, Helsinki, Finland-based Digia has more than seven years’ experience in providing Qt development and services, and is dedicated to continue and grow Qt Commercial relationships as well as to contribute innovation to the overall Qt LGPL and commercial community, Nystrom said

The use of Qt as an application and UI framework has been growing since Nokia’s acquisition of Trolltech in 2008. The commercial customers represent a broad range of industries, including consumer electronics, finance, aviation, energy, defense and media. Qt use has increased the need for solid commercial support and services executed with strong focus. Moreover, 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 an additional boost for creating business solutions with Qt, as well as an opportunity for customers to benefit from Digia services, the company said.

“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 the 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,” Nystrom said in a statement. “Digia has proven, in-depth Qt expertise, operational excellence and a keen interest in growing and improving the overall Qt community, and is so-well positioned to expand the Qt Commercial licensing and services business.”

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