Nokia Corp.’s bid to buy Psion plc’s stake in operating system company Symbian moved one step closer to fruition as the German authority Bundeskartellamt approved the transaction. The move now opens the issue to the rest of Symbian’s stakeholders, which can use their pre-emption rights to increase their stakes in the company.
“We welcome other shareholders’ participation,” said Pertti Korhonen, Nokia’s chief technology officer. “A crucial part of Symbian’s staying power in the competitive mobile OS market will continue to be based on the multivendor ownership structure, which includes key handset manufacturers. 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.”
Nokia said the pre-emption process should be finished by the first half of July.
According to news reports, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson have said they will use their pre-emption rights to increase their stakes in Symbian. The move would decrease the amount of Psion’s share that Nokia would be able to buy. Although critics have said Nokia wants more power over the future of Symbian, Nokia has repeatedly said it wants Symbian to remain under the control of a consortium of its licensees. Symbian’s stakeholders and licensees include Sony Ericsson, Siemens, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and others.
Nokia announced earlier this year its plan to buy Psion’s 31.1-percent stake in Symbian. The move would increase Nokia’s stake in Symbian from 32.2 percent to 63.3 percent. However, each Symbian stakeholder has the option to increase its stake as well. If all of Symbian’s stakeholders exercise their pre-emption rights, Nokia would be able to increase its Symbian stake only to 46.7 percent instead of 63.3 percent. Control over Symbian requires agreement among 70 percent of its owners.
