Nokia Closer to Increasing Stake in Symbian

Posted By: demesa Thursday, June 10, 2004 12:47:37 PM

Nokia has now received final clearance for the proposed purchase of Psion's shares in Symbian. The possible transfer is widely seen as a move by Nokia to gain control of the Symbian platform.

Nokia and Psion announced in February that they had started the process of enabling the transfer of Psion's shares in Symbian to Nokia. The German competition authorities approval completes the formal clearance process of the transfer. The intended transaction has earlier been approved by Psion plc's shareholders and by the competition authorities in Austria and Finland. The transaction is now moving to its final phase where other shareholders of Symbian can participate in the transaction by using their pre-emption rights.

Should the sale go through, Nokia's Symbian stake will increase to 46.7 percent from their current 32.2 percent. Under the Symbian shareholder agreement, stakeholders will have until mid-July to exercise their rights of first refusal.

According to the Register, Ericsson has called on the others to increase their stakes, with Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg saying that if Nokia gains more than 50 per cent, Symbian "becomes a Nokia platform. If that happens there will be a gradual deterioration in the view of Symbian".

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Psion

JonathanChoo @ 6/10/2004 1:19:58 PM #
Looks like we won't ever see a Symbian based Psion product anymore..

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Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770C > T625C > NR70V > e310 > T/T > HP h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630
RE: Psion
Token User @ 6/10/2004 5:17:11 PM #
Nothing stopping Psion licencing the platform back from Nokia ... then again it would alos open up Psion to licencing other operating systems.

Psion running PalmOS? PPC? Linux (in progress - PsiLinux)? Actually, a new Psion product running anything would be cool ... 8^(

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: Psion
JonathanChoo @ 6/11/2004 4:53:26 AM #
The 5mx replacement running any OS although I don't mind it running CE.Net Don't really fancy their Netbook range - too big.

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Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770C > T625C > NR70V > e310 > T/T > HP h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630

Is this relevant news?

Jeffry @ 6/10/2004 3:08:49 PM #
Is this news article have any connection to Palm?
I don't get it.

RE: Is this relevant news?
Fuzzillogic @ 6/10/2004 3:51:48 PM #
Symbian is a competing OS to PalmOS. So yes, it is very relevant.

RE: Is this relevant news?
doctor__no @ 6/10/2004 4:05:03 PM #
So what next? Microsoft news?
RE: Is this relevant news?
LiveFaith @ 6/10/2004 4:40:28 PM #
CNET article on this specifically stated "Symbian and M$ are expected to dominate the advanced cell phone operating system market for the rest of the decade". I guess their newsroom did not consider the "smart-fone March Madness" contest where the Treo dominated?

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Is this relevant news?
sub_tex @ 6/10/2004 4:40:47 PM #
*sigh*

Does everything here have to be criticized? I for one and happy to see more news posts on this site. As it is PIC lags behind many other PDA sites and rarely posts rumor info when they are posted elsewhere.

Sure you can go to the other sites and debate, but it'd be nice to be able to do that here as well.

RE: Is this relevant news?
Rome @ 6/10/2004 5:54:37 PM #
This is actually good news for Palmsource. If Nokia were to become the majority shareholder of Symbian, why would any handset maker want to use Symbian? Anybody who does is essentially putting more money in their biggest competitor's bank account.



RE: Is this relevant news?
drw @ 6/10/2004 7:53:18 PM #
While Sony pulled the plug on US clie production, SonyEricsson should view this as a golden opportunity to become a palmos licensee. Imagine a SE-T610 running palmos. Sweet!

---
David
RE: Is this relevant news?
JonathanChoo @ 6/11/2004 4:54:30 AM #
T610 does not have a touch sensitive screen. PalmOS still need to be further tweaked to completely free itself from stylus use. I know that the Treo6 00 has done a good job in that but more work is needed.

--
Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770C > T625C > NR70V > e310 > T/T > HP h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac 75 > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630
RE: Is this relevant news?
BimBoy @ 6/11/2004 8:34:28 AM #
Correct.. The T610 does not have touchscreen, but the P800 and P900 by SE do. If Nokia takes "ownership" of Symbian, then there's a real possibility that SonyEricsson would not purchase from Nokia, and swap to PalmOS based smartphones.

Funny, because when I read about the Clie line drying up, I wondered if it was because it was beginning to overlap the smartphone that they are successfully produceing under the SonyEricsson moniker. One logical step the Clie line would have to have taken (at some point in the near future) would have to have been added cell capability, which would be foolish when they already produce smartphones with Ericsson.

Global interaction?

e_tellurian @ 6/10/2004 3:24:43 PM #
Seems logical if one sees an interactive industry emerging.

E-T

e-tellurian

completing the e-com circle with a people driven we-com solution

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