Motorola selling stake in Symbian consortium

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August 29, 2003 (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.

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