Nokia says hello to Twango

On the heels of its September 2006 acquisition of file-sharing company Loudeye, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced plans to acquire file-sharing company Twango for an undisclosed sum. Twango, which launched in October 2006, is basically a place where you can post different types of personal media -- primarily videos. While everyone knows that YouTube dominated the online video market, Twango is a unique offering in the space. It exists primarily to simplify the process of moving files from your phone to the internet.

It's interesting that Nokia decided to acquire such a small business with less than 100,000 users. But it seems like Nokia made the acquisition primarily for the personnel because, according to the company, the acquisition will give Nokia a seasoned team with strong social media and Web services expertise."

However, Nokia made the acquisition for more reasons than one. For example, Twango programming (via API) is published, which allows web developers to essentially innovate the company's product for free. Even more importantly, this acquisition will allow Nokia's customers to more easily integrate files between their mobile phones and their computers.

All in all, this acquisition was probably very small monetarily and I doubt it will have a significant contribution to the company's sales. Nokia's customers probably stand to benefit from the acquisition if the platform is as worthwhile as I've read it is.