Sony to buy out Ericsson in their mobile division, says WSJ

By Jerry Hildenbrand  | Oct 06 2011 | 12:35 pm  | 11 Comments

Sony Ericsson

According to the Wall Street Journal and sources "familiar with the matter", Sony Corp is near finalizing a deal that will buy out Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson's holdings in the mobile division.  This would make Sony the sole owner of Sony Ericsson, the world's sixth-largest cell phone manufacturer, and set them up for a future in the mobile industry.

"Sony aims to integrate its smartphone operation with its businesses in tablets, hand-held game machines, and personal computers to save on costs and better synchronize development of mobile devices" says the WSJ's source, and that sounds like a very solid strategy.  The new Sony tablets have been well received by the media, and Sony is a name everyone recognizes.  We can only hope their penchant for DRM and control doesn't nullify the strides Sony Ericsson has taken in respect to open-hardware and community developer support should the buyout happen as planned.

Source: Wall Street Journal (paid content)

Jerry Hildenbrand

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There are 11 comments

colombia_sprint_android says:

Uhhh... So.... Sony is buying sony....? I thought sony e. Was sony...?

Jerry Hildenbrand says:

Only half.  They are buying out their partner to get full control over the mobile portion.

bodero#ac says:

Not much different than if Verizon bought Verizon Wireless...

Since Verizon Communications only owns about half of Verizon Wireless, while Vodaphone owns the rest.

colombia_sprint_android says:

Ohhh... I see, so by this i hope the great sony bring out better phones...

EggoEspada says:

I'm glad. SE is a mess, and Sony proved they can make great products and of course are backed by their branding and services. Integrate other Sony Products and get developers for your Playstation Sutie and you might stay afloat.

eahinrichsen says:

Sony is taking mobile more and more seriously every day, and what they've done recently shows that they're really on the right path here. Hopefully this will remove one more layer of red tape and will help Sony continue to address their history of software update problems.

Gekko says:

IMO it's far past time to nix the Ericsson name from the brand.

trevmar says:

Good grief. Am I the only one concerned with this buyout? I was looking at buying one of the new Sony-Ericsson phones, but I don't trust Sony's openness as much as I trusted Ericssons... Looks like I stay with Sammy, LG and HTC...

Jerry Hildenbrand says:

No you're not :-/

 

dekadans says:

I'll be sad if this turns out to be true. As a Swedish citizen, I'm quite proud of the 'Ericsson'-part of the name. 'Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson' is a very large part of Swedish telephone history, and while this by no means is the end for the whole company, it would reduce their world-wide recognition.

zacharyzblewski says:

If nothing else, the idiots won't be able to say "SONY DOESN'T MAKE PHONES" any longer.