Nokia Corp. is taking control of smartphone software company Symbian Ltd.
The Espoo, Finland, phone giant plans to buy out all of Psion PLCs shares in the London-based Symbian, officials said Monday. The deal is expected to close in the next few months.
Psion, also of London, will receive the equivalent of $250 million for its 31.1 percent stake, which will give Nokia a 63 percent stake in Symbian.
This is the second major share sale for Symbian in five months. Last September, Motorola Inc. sold its 20 percent stake in the company, expressing plans to focus on Java- and Linux-based handsets. At the time, Psion and Nokia split Motorolas shares.
Ericsson AB, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Matsushita Electric Corp. of America (Panasonic), Siemens Enterprise Networks LLC and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Inc. also own stakes in Symbian, which was founded in 1998. But for years Nokia has been the biggest proponent of the Symbian operating system because its Series 60 development platform runs on top of it.
Psion plans to focus exclusively on its Teklogix hardware business, which is the only business it has left. Last month Psion sold its software business to Visto Corp.