Motorola selling stake in Symbian consortium

It currently owns 19% of the smart-phone OS developer

By Peter Sayer

August 29, 2003 12:00 PM ET

IDG News Service - Motorola Inc. is negotiating the sale of its 19% stake in Symbian Ltd. to Nokia Corp. and Psion PLC, the companies announced today.
Smart-phone operating system developer Symbian turned five years old yesterday, ending agreements among founding shareholders Motorola, Nokia, Psion and LM Ericsson Telephone Co. not to sell their stakes, according to a Psion spokeswoman.
Although Motorola is selling its stake in Symbian, that doesn't mark the end of the two companies' relationship, according to Motorola spokesman Patrick Hamilton. Motorola released its first smart phone based on the Symbian operating system yesterday and will continue to use Symbian's software under license.
The real focus of Motorola's smart-phone development effort is Java, Hamilton said. "The actual operating system being used is not that relevant. Our position on Java is not dependent on us using one OS. We will continue to use a number of operating systems," he said.
Those operating systems will include Symbian OS, Linux and one of Motorola's own devising, Hamilton said.
The sale will raise Psion's stake in Symbian from 25.3% to 31.1%, while Nokia's stake will increase from 19% to 32.2%, Psion said. Although Hamilton confirmed those figures, he wouldn't discuss how much Psion and Nokia will pay.
The agreed price values Symbian at $473 million, according to Psion and Nokia. Psion will pay Motorola $27.4 million in cash for its share.
Hamilton said the stakes held by Symbian's other shareholders will likely remain unchanged. According to Psion, those stakes are 17.5% for Ericsson, 7.9% for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic), 5% for Samsung Electronics Co., 4.8% for Siemens AG and 1.5% for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.
The deal is subject to approval by regulators and the other shareholders, who have a right to preempt such sales. Nokia said it expects the deal to close in a matter of weeks.
Last week, Symbian reported that 2.68 million handheld devices using its software were shipped in the first half of this year, up from just 230,000 a year earlier, while royalty revenue from software licensees increased from $2.3 million to $16.5 million over the same period.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

2007 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report
Riverbed positioned in Leaders Quadrant of Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers. Analyzing strengths vs. cautions, Gartner helps organizations looking to acquire...

5 Best Practice Tips for Managing BlackBerry, iPhone, & Windows Mobile Devices
(Source: Zenprise) Mobile devices continue to proliferate across the enterprise, driven largely by the increase in worker productivity, efficiency, and flexibility they provide....

Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
Are your workers going increasingly mobile? Don't wait for their calls to slam Support when they experience poor application performance on the road....

Managing Laptops Outside the Office
(Source: Absolute Software) In this webinar, learn how you can reduce costs by tracking mobile computers no matter where they are located. Featuring...

IT Best Practices: To Support or Not Support Consumer Owned Smartphones
Companies have historically standardized on a single smartphone platform. Of late, IT is facing pressure to support the increasing influx of consumer owned...

What Are 'Free' Remote Support Tools Really Costing You?
(Source: LogMeIn) In this webinar from LogMeIn, discover how "next generation" remote support tools are optimized to provide advanced capabilities like scripting, system...

Lennox Goes Mobile and Increases Service Performance by 50%
This white paper explains how Lennox remedied major system malfunctions with Aeroprise Mobility for BMC Remedy Service Desk on smartphones....

IT Strategies for Remotely Supporting a Distributed Workforce
(Source: Citrix Online) Today's workforce is a distributed one - workers across industries are telecommuting, working out of satellite offices and connecting into...

Realizing Rapid ROI Through Mobility
Companies are reaping the benefits from mobile CRM, field service and sales force automation processes with the latest Research In Motion (RIM) offerings....

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

All White Papers | All Webcasts