Invest in Finland

Microsoft to acquire a Finnish company

28/11/2008

Microsoft is looking to acquire a Finnish company. The process is still in its early days but there are already several candidates under consideration, according to Ari Rahkonen, managing director of Microsoft Finland. He believes that the ideal company would have resources for innovation in the future schools field or it could combine teaching and mobile activities.

Rahkonen believes that Finland’s profile will be promoted by the new Aalto University which will start functioning on 1 August 2009. Aalto University is a new university created through a merger between the Helsinki School of Economics, the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology.Merging the three universities provides possibilities for multidisciplinary and strong education and research. “This is an interesting project where technology is combined with business management and design. It will also be possible to get international investments through the university,” says Rahkonen.

Rahkonen is active in the The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries and says that Finnish ICT companies are still recruiting despite a downturn in some other sectors of the economy. For example, Microsoft Finland has 15 vacancies is not planning any cuts in the workforce. Microsoft established itself in Finland in 1992 and currently employs 250 people.

Rahkonen believes that businesses need to keep improving their operations as circumstances are constantly changing. The need to increase efficiency creates opportunities for ICT companies even in markets that are in decline. Organizations want to manage their property more and in a better way, which also brings business opportunities to ICT companies, according to Rahkonen. He says that Business Intelligence is another important area that is growing. It brings real-time information about companies operations from top management to the grass roots level.

Another growth area has been Microsoft Dynamics CRM which has been sold as a service in Finland. Finnish operators have keenly started selling the applications as a service. According to information collected by Microsoft, there were 30 companies actively selling software as a service and the growth rate was 55%.

According to market research company IDC, the software as a service (SaaS) business model, where software is sold by subscription online, is becoming more common globally much faster than earlier expected. IDC estimates that the SaaS model will grow by 30% a year for the next five years. “It is not just about distributing software but about creating new services that focus on the Web,” says Rahkonen.