It’s just been revealed that Sony has bought out its Swedish partner, Ericsson, for $1,5 billion. Ericsson had a 50 per cent stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson, but will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony now. Sony is rather excited about the move because now it can integrate its smartphones with its consumer electronics devices.

The two companies combined their names and embarked on the joint venture that was Sony Ericsson in 2001. They enjoyed some early successes with the Walkman and Cyber-shot phones, but have lacked competitiveness in the smartphone environment.

Sony Chairman, Sir Howard Stringer, told a news conference in London earlier:

It’s the beginning of something which I think is quite magical. We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment.

More and more people are watching content on smartphones. TV is not going to go away, but they watch it on smartphones and they watch it on tablets.

When the Android-based Xperia smartphone was launched in 2008, it initially didn’t take off well, but now accounts for 80 per cent of the company’s sales. It also boasts an 11 per cent share of the Android-based smartphone market.

Stringer continued:

While we do have catching up to do, we have a lot of things to add to this phone. The television or whatever that we can make for this phone and other Sony devices is the beginning of something I think is quite magical.

I like how he just throws that out there – “The television or whatever that we can make for this phone..”

Ericsson is going to focus its telecommunication attention on the global wireless market as a whole now, and how this wireless connectivity can benefit people in all sectors.

The deal, approved in principal, still needs regulatory approval (which it should get) and should be finalised by January next year.

[Source: Reuters]