Nokia said today it planned to become the leading shareholder in mobile software joint venture Symbian after US partner Motorola decided to sell its 19 per cent stake.
The deal, under which the Finnish company and British software ally Psion want to share Motorola's stake, will cost Nokia about $62 million. It values Symbian at about $474 million.
Psion and Nokia said they hoped to secure a deal in the coming weeks after the expiry yesterday of a five-year shareholder agreement that prevented founding partners from selling their stakes.
The deal marks the latest manoeuvring in a battle to crack the potentially lucrative software side of the cellphone market, which sells 450 million handsets a year. The early skirmishes have put Symbian ahead of arch-rival Microsoft.
Analysts said it remained to be seen whether Motorola's exit from the Symbian shareholder group would herald its demise.
The consortium, founded in 1998, has a tight grip on the market for software that runs on "smart phones", which offer users better graphics and limited personal computer features on top of the basic mobile phone functions.