Samsung accepts Nokia's offer to buy out Symbian

The last hurdle in Nokia's attempts to buy out the Symbian software firm and make it into an open source group has been passed, as Samsung accepted Nokia's offer to buy out its stake in Symbian, says a Tuesday report. Back in June, Nokia announced it would buy out the shares of the other shareholders for a total of $410 million and then make the Symbian cellular phone operating system open-source, making it available without royalties to members of the Symbian Foundation founded by Nokia.

With new competition coming from Google and its Android open-source operating system for mobile phones headed up by the Open Handset Alliance, Nokia and its many partners that include handset makers and wireless network carriers and communications chipmakers that make up the Symbian Foundation, Nokia is trying to take Symbian open-source as well. Also, the Symbian Foundation aims to promote more widespread use of the Symbian OS, with simpler choices for cellphones.

The Symbian Foundation thus far includes, but is not limited to, phone companies LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, carriers including AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone and semiconductor firms STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments.

No information has been released as to the amount of money Nokia paid Samsung for its shares in Symbian.

Filed under: industry, software, developer, mobile phones
Other story tags: Samsung, Nokia, Symbian, Open Source