Nokia Finally Set To Control Symbian

Symbian is co-owned by British mobile device vendor Psion and a number of wireless handset and infrastructure vendors including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Ericsson. Nokia has been trying to acquire Psion's shares in Symbian, which would give it a controlling interest in the platform company.

Psion and Nokia said Wednesday that the final hurdles have been overcome and that it and Nokia can no go ahead with the transaction. The last hurdle was approval by German regulators, according to Psion.

"All conditions have now been fulfilled enabling Nokia to execute and deliver its offer to Psion," Psion said in a statement.

Several of Symbian's co-owners have expressed concern about Nokia gaining a controlling interest in Symbian and, under the conditions of their ownership, they have the ability to pre-empt Nokia's level of ownership. It is now yet known, however, what action those other companies will take but Nokia welcomed the pre-emption process.

"We welcome other shareholders' participation," Pertti Korhonen, Nokia's Chief Technology Officer said in a statement. "A crucial part of Symbian's staying power in the competitive mobile OS market will continue to be based on the multi-vendor ownership structure which includes key handset manufacturers."

Korhonen indicated he didn't expect difficulty from the other vendors.

"We are happy to say, based on our mutual discussions, that all shareholders have a strong and aligned commitment to ensure Symbian's future success and product competitiveness," he said.

*This story courtesy of MobilePipeline.com.