Nokia dominated the tech headlines last week, when it unveiled a new strategic partnership with Microsoft to bring Windows-based smartphones to the market. CEO Stephen Elop said that there was now a "third horse" in the race. 

While there may be more than three horses, this horse will certainly be one to watch. Elop made some more interesting comments on Sunday, indicating that Microsoft had won a bidding war with Google for the deal, paying out an undisclosed amount, but in the billions. He also suggested that Nokia’s first Windows phones will come out this year, according to a report from IDG News Service. 

Google may have lost out in a bidding war, but that hasn’t stopped the company from trying to hire Nokia engineers. A recruiter for Google put out a job ad aimed specifically at Nokia software engineers via Twitter. 

Microsoft potentially has a great deal to gain from its partnership with Nokia, not only in the mobile space itself, but in the search space as well. Phones that result from the deal will come with Bing as the default search. If sales are good, it could significantly increase Bing’s search market share. That, of course, would mean greater search advertising revenue. 

Conspiracy theorists out there have suggested that Microsoft somehow covertly sent former employee Elop to take over Nokia, so it could get this deal. According to the IDG report, Elop "sought to dispel" such rumors. 

Nokia named Chris Weber as its new North American President last week.