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> Ericsson to lift stake in Symbian
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Guys,
Got this info from my-symbian.
Yes! After a few weeks of knowing Nokia could be having more than 60% of Symbian's shares, finally some good news coming from the mother company, good old Ericsson
Two thumbs up to you Ericsson, for keeping the hopes of future Px00 series of phones alive, as well as keeping the faith of current and potential developers to start/continue developing great apps and games for the UIQ platform.
Sorry to Moderators, as I know this topic has somewhat been brought up previously, but I think such good news needs a new thread
Here's the full article from my-symbian:
As articles in the Financial Times only are available for non-subscribers for two days, here is an excerpt:
Ericsson, the world's leading maker of mobile infrastructure, is to increase its stake in Symbian, the leading maker of software for smart phones, to help prevent Nokia from gaining a majority stake in the company.
Nokia agreed in January to buy a 31.1 per cent stake in Symbian from Psion for about £136m ($250m) in a move that would lift its total stake to 63.3 per cent. But existing shareholders have proportional pre-emption rights.
Ericsson is the largest of the other shareholders with a 17.5 per cent stake, with Panasonic holding 7.9 per cent, Samsung 5.0 per cent, Siemens 4.8 per cent and Sony Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture between Sony of Japan and Ericsson, 1.5 per cent.
Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson chief executive, said: "They [Nokia] must get below 50 per cent, otherwise it becomes a Nokia platform. I don't think everybody would see that as a problem but some people would do. If that happens there will be a gradual deterioration in the view of Symbian and other platforms could start to materialise."
As well as being its largest shareholder, Nokia is also Symbian's biggest customer, leading some observers to question how independent it would be with Nokia as its majority shareholder even if 70 per cent is formally needed for control. Jorma Ollila, Nokia chief executive, has made it clear he would be happy to see other shareholders exercise their pre-emption rights.
Speaking to the FT, Mr Svanberg said Ericsson and Sony Ericsson would act as a team. If all shareholders exercised their pre-emption rights, Nokia's holding in Symbian would only increase to 46.7 per cent. The combined ownership of Ericsson and Sony Ericsson would rise to 27.6 per cent.
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Cheers
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Posted: 2004-03-22 14:24:25
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/36419.html
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Posted: 2004-03-22 14:56:51
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good old ericsson
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Posted: 2004-03-22 15:15:11
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It was so much expected that SE would take a piece of the pie as well.
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Posted: 2004-03-22 15:23:49
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