Sony Buys Ericsson Out of Mobile Phone Business
Weeks ago rumors surfaced of a potential buyout of Ericsson’s half of the Sony Ericsson mobile business. It was one of those rumors that just made sense, and today has been confirmed.
Sony and Ericsson have formally agreed to a deal which has Sony buying out Ericsson’s 50% stake in their joint mobile business venture. Sony will pay Ericsson to the tune of 1.05 billion Euros for Ericsson’s entire stake, as well as a number of mobile-related patents.
The Japanese and Swedish companies originally joined forces in 2001 in an attempt boost profitability in a market where each were struggling separately. As of today, Sony Ericsson is the 6th-largest player in the mobile market, thanks to handsets like the Xperia PLAY.
Sony is using this move to unify their mobile offering with other branches of their business, including their networked services such as the PlayStation Network and Music Unlimited.
The deal is pending regulatory approvals and is expected to close some time in January 2012.
3 Responses to “Sony Buys Ericsson Out of Mobile Phone Business”
If Sony wants to remain the premium brand they claim to be, they need to use only the new quad core processors in their new phones. Playstation Suite is a nice start to integrating Android but if they made the standard of porting PSP games to it than it could really take off. I’m more than sure my next phone will be Sony made. They said Sony wants to make all their devices able to connect to each other and a phone that connects to my PS3/PS4 and Vita is very enticing to me
You just made my mouth drool
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PLAY 2, here we come! I love my current PLAY, nothing can beat it for gaming on your phone!