Swedish telecoms equipment manufacturer Ericsson has
become the first of several shareholders in Symbian to announce
plans to stop rival Nokia from gaining control of the mobile phone
operating system developer.
In February, Psion agreed to sell its 31.1% stake in Symbian to
Nokia in a move that would lift the Finnish phone maker's total
stake in the venture to 63.3%. That deal came less than six months
after Motorola decided to unload its 19% stake in the software
company to Nokia and Psion.
Symbian was launched in 1998 by several large handset
manufacturers as a venture to control the development of operating
system software for smart phones. It competes, among others,
against Microsoft, which is trying to extend its dominant position
in the PC operating system software market to mobile devices.
Ericsson president and chief executive officer Carl-Henric
Svanberg said Nokia's stake in Symbian must be less than half to
prevent the software from becoming "a Nokia platform".
Symbian's five other shareholders have proportional pre-emption
rights, allowing them to purchase a stake in the shareholding up
for sale that corresponds to their interest in the venture.
While Ericsson owns 17.5%, and its joint venture Sony Ericsson
owns 1.5%, Panasonic holds 7.9%, Samsung 5% and Siemens 4.8%.
Svanberg said the company "would act as a team" in exercising
their pre-emption rights. Their combined ownership would rise to
27.6%.
He added that if all shareholders exercised their pre-emption
rights, Nokia's stake in Symbian would increase to only 46.7%.
While Nokia continues to seek approval for its acquisition of
Psion's stake from competition authorities, it is telling fellow
shareholders at the same time that they are welcome to exercise
their pre-emption rights.
Nokia expected to have an agreement on Psion's stake in Symbian
"in the coming months".
After reaching an agreement with Psion, Nokia told the other
shareholders that it aimed to continue running the software venture
as an independent entity.
John Blau writes for IDG News Service