Nokia Corporation [ 5 ] [ a ] is a Finnish multinational telecommunications , information technology , and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo , Finland, in the Helsinki metropolitan area , [ 3 ] but the company's actual roots are in the Tampere region of Pirkanmaa. The company has operated in various industries over the past years. It was founded as a pulp mill and had long been associated with rubber and cables , but since the s has focused on large-scale telecommunications infrastructure , technology development, and licensing.
For a decade beginning in , Nokia was the largest worldwide vendor of mobile phones and smartphones. In the later s, however, Nokia suffered from a series of poor management decisions and soon saw its share of the mobile phone market drop sharply. After a partnership with Microsoft and Nokia's subsequent market struggles, [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] in , Microsoft bought Nokia's mobile phone business, [ 16 ] [ 17 ] incorporating it as Microsoft Mobile.
The company was viewed with national pride by Finns , as its mobile phone business made it by far the largest worldwide company and brand from Finland. Nokia's history dates from , when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a pulp mill on the shores of the Tammerkoski rapids near the town of Tampere , Finland then a Grand Duchy under Russian Empire 's rule.
Idestam retired in , making Mechelin the company's chairman; he expanded into electricity generation by , which Idestam had opposed. The rubber company grew rapidly when it moved to the Nokia region in the s to take advantage of the electricity supply, and the cable company soon did too.
Nokia at the time also made respirators for both civilian and military use, from the s well into the early s. In , the three companies β Nokia, Kaapelitehdas, and Finnish Rubber Works β merged to create a new Nokia Corporation, restructured into four major businesses: forestry, cable, rubber, and electronics.
