We’ve heard grumblings that Sony was moving to buy out Ericsson’s stake in their handset joint venture, but it’s finally official. After 10 years of making mobile devices together, Sony has officially bought out Ericsson’s stake in the business, dropping a cool 1.05 billion Euros (roughly 1.5 billion US) for the deal. Sony sees that smartphones are vital to their mobile device offerings (which includes their handheld consoles and tablets) and the buy-out means that they’ll be able to enhance and strengthen their position in the rapidly evolving in the mobile space. Sony will also gain access to five essential patent families which will come in handy in today’s litigation happy patent atmosphere.
Source: Sony