Nokia to buy Symbian

Source: Technology Digital

Date :24/06/2008 12:18:53

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is paying a reported £209million to buy out the other shareholders in handset software firm Symbian and will make the software royalty-free to respond to rivals such as Google.

Nokia, which already owns 48 percent of the UK-based firm, intends to develop its software to compete with Google's planned Android operating system.

Nokia said Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens had agreed to sell their stakes in Symbian, adding that Samsung was also expected to accept the offer.

Foundation

Symbian told the BBC the takeover was “a fundamental step” in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, which is expected to start operating in the first half of 2009.

The foundation will bring together Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone in collaboration on a new, royalty-free open software platform for mobile phones.

The aim is to unite several different existing operating systems. Nokia will contribute Symbian and its S60 software assets to the foundation, while other members will put in their UIQ and MOAP software.

The news comes one day after reports that Google's Android platform for mobile phones had suffered delays. Symbian's software is used in two-thirds of smartphones and six percent of all cellphones.

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