Thu, Oct 06, 2011 | 23:29 BST
Rumour – Sony to buy out Ericsson’s half of Sony Ericsson
Sonys is said to be willing to pony up $1 billion for Ericsson’s stake in the two companies’ joint mobile venture.
The Wall Street Journal cites sources close to the deal, which would allow Sony to integrate its smartphone, tablet, and portable gaming business lines.
Sony has made several recent announcements which provide context for such a decision including an increased emphasis on the PlayStation Suite hardware-agnostic development environment and the promotion of Kaz Hirai to an executive role uniting all of Sony’s previously-disparate consumer electronic streams.
Ericsson’s assets have been valued at between $1.3 and $1.7 billion.
Sony and Ericsson launched their joint mobile phone campaign ten years ago; each company holds a 50 percent stake in the venture. In recent years the brand has released several notable Android devices including the twin-analog equipped Xperia Play.
Thanks, Gamasutra.
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Posted in: Android, Mobile, Sony, Trade
Tags: Ericsson, sony ericsson, xperia, XPERIA Play
9 comments
#1
Lounds
07/10/11, 6:28 am
Waste more money Sony, Instead of investing in the games industry which is only gonna grow.
#2
Toastrules
07/10/11, 7:28 am
Because the phone industry isn’t growing…
owait
The fact that the inventor of the juggernaut of all smartphones is now out of the equation is probably also another reason Sony’s going to focus more on phones now
#3
ultramega
07/10/11, 7:29 am
@1
Um… You do realize that Sony produces products other than consoles, right? That is one of those statements that just boggles my mind as to how foolish it is.
#4
NightCrawler1970
07/10/11, 9:01 am
I thought Sony already owns Ericsson on phone market??? why buy it again?? im confused
#5
Maximum Payne
07/10/11, 9:04 am
@4 Me to
#6
Christopher Jack
07/10/11, 9:47 am
@4, Joint venture, Sony & Ericsson each owned 50%, Sony clearly aren’t happy with the way things are running so they want full control. I think that will be a good idea. Would really like to see Sony improve on their Entertainment Network, now that media is now accessible on mobile phones, it’d be a great way to expand their software offerings.
#7
rainer
07/10/11, 3:35 pm
Sony is doing the right thing as Ericsson are a lot like Nokia (same Scandinavian mindset) that is causing them to lose market share. They twiddled their thumbs on Android not wanting to release a phone while others took the lead.
So Sony taking over is really for the best if they want to be in the smartphone business which they should do.
#8
Erthazus
07/10/11, 3:43 pm
Well, for Sony maybe it is the right decision because making phones with 50%/50% hurts both companies.
They both have their own ideas and not all of them each of the companies like, so thats a huge improvement.
But on the other hand… Sony Ericsson is CRAP despite some really good patents. When SE launched mobile phones they were the best phones on the market. Right now it’s completely opposite and they already lost a lot of money.
Sony Ericsson as a brand is weak right now. If you ask a person: What is Sony Ericsson. They will say something like:
“Sony is good at making TV’s” or “Oh, that company that developed T610? It was fantastic… but now i use iPhone/Nokia so whatever.”
#9
NightCrawler1970
11/10/11, 9:20 am
Ericson phone was crap anyway before Sony bought Ericson….
Nokia was in the lead on the phone market, i hardly say now… Nokia can wrap up the business, Iphone & Other smart-phones with apps leads at the moment….