Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, has annual revenues well in excess of the $80 billion mark and growing steadily. The company was founded in 1865 and was originally involved with pulp, rubber and cable manufacturing. It was incorporated in 1967. Since then, Nokia has become involved in numerous mobile technologies, and with networking services and software. Its devices, apart from mobile phones, include cameras, music players, computers, gaming consoles and navigation devices.

In the past 18 months, Nokia has made three significant moves: its 50/50 joint venture with Siemens and the acquisitions of Navteq and Symbian. Nokia Siemens Networks, the merger consummated in the first quarter of 2007, brings together the networking interests of its two parent companies. It's already a leading player in this space, raking in revenues in excess of $25 billion per annum. The $8.1 billion acquisition of Navteq, a digital map provider, last October created a highly disrupted environment that's threatening the value proposition of vehicle-embedded navigation systems and personal navigation devices. It now places Nokia in a position to foster many new innovative solutions with its handset technologies together with those from Navteq.