LONDON-In conjunction with releasing its financial results for the first six months of the year, U.K. handheld computer maker Psion plc said it plans to list the Symbian consortium, most likely in 2001.
“The shareholders of Symbian have decided that subject to good progress in the establishment of volume products and to prevailing conditions in financial markets, Symbian will be floated,” Psion said.
Symbian is an industry alliance promoting the EPOC operating system for wireless devices, which competes with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows CE and Palm Inc.’s PalmOS operating systems.
Analysts estimate the initial public offering could be worth about $8 billion. The Symbian consortium includes shareholders L.M. Ericsson, Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Matsushita. Earlier this year, Japan’s Sony Corp. signed an agreement to license the Symbian technology.
Psion reported $4.54 million in pretax profits for the six months ending June 30. Excluding special items and its share of costs associated with Symbian, the company’s profit totaled $11.6 million. Handheld computer sales nearly doubled in the first-half period compared with the same period a year ago.
Psion said its $364 million acquisition of Canada’s Teklogix International Inc. is set to close in the third quarter.
