Nokia and Microsoft: Just Good Friends

Although Nokia and Microsoft have hitched their smartphone fortunes to one another, there have been no talks of a Microsoft acquisition of the Finnish cellphone giant, according to sources close to both companies.

Rumors of a Microsoft acquisition bid have helped give Nokia a bit of a lift following its brutal earnings warning on Monday, which led to two days of stock declines. However, sources say there is no truth whatsoever to the acquisition rumors.

While neither side commented on the record, we may well get to hear soon from the horse’s mouth as Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is due to speak later this afternoon at D9.

Microsoft and Nokia, once complete rivals with few ties, have grown increasingly close. After a few comparatively minor deals over the past few years, the two are now closely tied together as Nokia has bet on Windows Phone as the future for its smartphone business, with the first model aimed to be released later this year.

Nokia made the move to Windows Phone as part of a huge deal that will see the company getting more than $1 billion over several years in technical and marketing assistance. Google also wanted to woo Nokia, a fact Chairman Eric Schmidt reiterated at D on Tuesday night.

“We would have loved and we would still love to have Nokia be an Android licensee,” Schmidt said.