Sony Ericsson to buy Symbian software developer UIQ

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 08 November 2006 04:49

IT Industry - Deals

Sony Ericsson is to acquire Swedish software company UIQ Technology a wholly-owned subsidiary of Symbian that has developed and licences to phone manufacturers an application development platform and user interface for Symbian.

Sony Ericsson is already a licensee of UIQ Technology, and says it has been working closely with the company on UIQ version 3.0, which is included in Sony Ericsson's P990 smartphone, M600 messaging phone and W950 Walkman phone.

"UIQ offers excellent technical flexibility enabling us to provide compelling features such as push email, Internet browsing, end user personalisation and enhanced music applications" said Mats Lindoff, chief technology officer at Sony Ericsson. "By acquiring UIQ Technology we will further invest and exploit the full potential of UIQ on Symbian OS for phone vendors, mobile operators, developers and consumers."

Sony Ericsson says that, following completion of the acquisition, UIQ Technology will operate as a separate subsidiary under its current management team and that UIQ's Symbian-based software products will continue to be openly available, licensed on equal terms to all its licensees.

Symbian CEO, Nigel Clifford, said that divesting UIQ Technology would "strengthen the capabilities and services available for phones based on UIQ and Symbian OS whilst allowing us to focus on the core product development of Symbian OS for the mass market."

UIQ CEO, Johan Sandberg said that the deal would give the company "the additional investment needed to compete in the rapidly expanding software market for advanced phones." The transaction is expected to be completed over the next few months.