HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish cellphone maker Nokia Corp (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it was buying out other shareholders of UK-based handset software firm Symbian Ltd, and opening the software for royalty-free use.
The net cash outlay from Nokia to buy the approximately 52 percent of Symbian shares it does not already own will be about 264 million euros ($410 million).
Nokia said Sony Ericsson (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Panasonic and Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have accepted the offer, and it also expects Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to accept it.
Nokia also said it had formed Symbian Foundation together with AT&T (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), NTT DoCoMo (9437.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Sony Ericsson, Motorola and chip makers Texas Instruments (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and STMicroelectronics.
"This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers," Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement.
Symbian has about two-thirds of the smartphone software market, and its closest rival is Microsoft's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Windows Mobile.