Microsoft looks set to drop Nokia name from phones

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp looks set to ditch the Nokia name from its Lumia range of smartphones just months after buying the Finnish company's handset business. According to a post on Nokia France's Facebook page on Tuesday, the page will change its name to Microsoft Lumia "in the coming days." Microsoft declined comment. Under the terms of the $7.2 billion deal - struck in September 2013 and completed in April - Microsoft acquired Nokia's handset business, though not the name of the company itself. Nokia, which continues as a networks, mapping and technology licensing company, owns and manages the Nokia brand, and only licenses it to Microsoft. New Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has already begun to reduce the scale of its phone making operations. Of the 18,000 job cuts he announced in July, about 12,500 came from the unit acquired from Nokia. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Alan Crosby)