Sony will take, for 1.05 billion euros, the rest of the mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson shares from the joint venture owned with the Swedish group Ericsson, in an attempt to catch up with Apple and Samsung on the smartphone and tablet market, writes Reuters. Sony will also acquire some of the Ericsson patents in the field of mobile phones and Japanese group will integrate Sony Ericsson products with its own range of electronics and online content. Until now, laptops, tablets, video game consoles and other electronics manufactured by Sony were designed, developed, produced and placed on the market separately from Sony Ericsson phones.
“We can provide consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and TV sets that will connect smoothly with each other and will open a new world of online entertainment”, said Sir Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony. There were talks recently about the full takeover of the phone manufacturer by Sony, and sources close to talks told Reuters in October that the Japanese group and its Swedish partner, Ericsson, were negotiating such a transaction. “Sony now has all the components necessary to compete with Samsung and Apple. The big question is – will it work? The past makes me skeptical But I would not say that they will not succeed”, commented a technology analyst.
Founded in 2001, Sony Ericsson had a brilliant success on its debut due to camera phones focusing on quality and the music playback, derived from the popular Walkman and CyberShot made by Sony. In recent years the company has fallen behind on the smartphone market, although it manufactures competitive phones with the Android operating system. Ericsson announced that the transaction includes a broad agreement to license intellectual property rights, which covers all technologies used by Sony Ericsson in its products and services. Sony also acquired the “five families of patents essential for the wireless mobile technology”.