Microsoft-Nokia Deal Timing Leaves ValueAct Fewer Options

The timing of Microsoft Corp.’s agreement to acquire Nokia Oyj’s handset unit leaves activist shareholder ValueAct Holdings LP with fewer options to oppose a transaction some investors don’t favor, according to Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc.

ValueAct last week won an agreement from the world’s largest software maker that would give it a seat on the company’s board next year, along with guaranteed regular meetings between ValueAct’s President Mason Morfit and “selected Microsoft directors and management.”