Hope emerges for Nokia's future following purchase by Microsoft Salo is perhaps the best place to gauge the rise and fall of Nokia. The small town 100km west of Helsinki was the birthplace of the Finnish group's mobile phone business in the late 1970s. As Nokia grew into the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, so did its importance to the town: at its peak it employed 5,000 of the 26,000 workers in Salo and contributed €50m in corporate taxes to the city's budget. Then came Nokia's fall and a drastic cutting back, leaving only 1,200 workers today - all of whom are destined to move to Microsoft under its €5.44bn deal to buy the Finnish group's mobile phone business. Aimo Leskelä has worked in Salo for Nokia since 1985 and is an engineer for its Lumia smartphones. He says of the Microsoft deal: "My first reaction was surprise and also disappointment, because it seems that our products are increasing their market share in smartphones and we have good products coming on the market. I have a wish that we get more time. Mika Paukkeri, a Nokia worker for 19 years, says: "For me it was that silence inside me, now it has happened." He adds: "I don't know - it makes some mixed feelings. I was more or less waiting for it to happen. But I hoped we would go up again with Nokia. Last year Nokia closed its manufacturing business here - its last in Europe - and the previous year its low-end mobiles left Salo too. Now it is only research and development left for its Lumia smartphones. Unlike its other three locations in Finland - Espoo near Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu - all the workers at Salo are transferring to the US company. "Nokia's phone story is now at an end," says Mika Kortelainen, a Nokia veteran of 16 years. But Nokia phones are continuing, just the name is different. We are the same people doing the work. The impact on Salo of Nokia's dramatic fall from mobile phone domination is evident at the town hall. The loss of all of its €50m in taxes means that Salo's €400m annual budget is facing a substantial hole. Hannu Salminen, Salo's development director, says: "Because of the big lay-offs from Nokia, the city has been in crisis. We have expenses of roughly €1m a day and income of roughly €900,000 a day. We are now struggling with some serious problems. Antti Rantakokko, Salo's mayor, says his mood over the Microsoft deal has changed. At first I was worried. I was also afraid. But after some time I thought there could be more possibilities in the future. We have the knowhow; Microsoft doesn't. Microsoft is financially much stronger," he says. It is a similarly hopeful story with Nokia's workers. "It might be a chance for us," says Mr Paukkeri. It's a big company with a lot of money. They really need to get this business up. But there are also worries about the future and Microsoft's commitment to all the locations in Finland. "One concern from my point of view is how Microsoft will organise us in the future," says Mr Leskelä. We have four locations in Finland currently. Will they focus on certain sites in the future? There is also some trepidation about being owned by a company outside of Finland, although that is tempered by Nokia's international shareholder register. Mr Kortelainen says: "Nokia's headquarters are in Espoo. Next year we will belong to Microsoft and their headquarters are somewhere else. But Nokia's owners are already somebody somewhere, so from that point of view it's the same. One thing that has soured the mood is the furore over the €18.8m pay-off to Stephen Elop, Nokia's former chief executive. In Salo, with high unemployment and a recent national wage settlement equating to an extra €20 a month for all Finnish workers, there is little understanding for that reward. Nokia's stock price decreased about 60 per cent during Elop's CEO period. Normally management will get good bonuses when the market value increases," says Mr Leskelä. Mr Kortelainen adds: "It doesn't look very nice . . . If you think about the bonus that Elop is getting, typical Salo people think: why is he getting this? "The only good thing," says Mr Leskelä, "is that Microsoft will pay 70 per cent. It would have been better if it had been 100 per cent. Still, in Salo there is a typically Finnish attempt to look forward even if there is a general admission of uncertainty about what life under Microsoft might look like. "The key thing is the future and we are interested in Microsoft's plans and strategy," says Mr Rantakokko. Where will they develop their new models? Mr Paukkeri says: "Microsoft don't have this kind of experience so they really need us. Our chance is to show what we can do. He pauses, then adds: "But for the future: who knows?"