Nokia to acquire Psion’s stake in Symbian

Nokia Corp. is to acquire Psion PLC’s stake in operating system developer Symbian Ltd. and become the majority shareholder, the company said Monday.

The deal will see Nokia pay a fixed sum of £93.5 million ($172.4 million) and a variable payment of £0.84 for each Symbian OS-based device sold during 2004 and 2005. In return it will see its stake in Symbian rise from 32.2 percent to around 63.3 percent, the Finnish company said.

Psion estimates Symbian OS-based device shipments will equal 18.7 million units in 2004 and 31.5 million units in 2005 to bring the total value of the transaction to around £135.7 million. The fixed payment will be made on completion of the deal and the variable payments made in March 2005 and March 2006, said the company. It also retains a right to a higher payout should an IPO (initial public offering) of Symbian take place before the end of 2005.

Completion is expected within the coming months but is subject to approval by competition authorities and Psion’s shareholders, Nokia said.

Other shareholders in Symbian include Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Siemens AG, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.