Ericsson to pull Symbian rug from under Nokia's feet?

Swedish telecoms manufacturer Ericsson is planning to increase its stake in Symbian in order to prevent Nokia winning control of the smartphone operating system maker.

Nokia is in the process of buying Psion's 31 per cent stake in Symbian, which would give the Finnish mobile giant ownership of 63 per cent of the business. Ericsson is determined not to allow Nokia to win such control.

An Ericsson spokesman said: "If Nokia had more than 50 per cent of Symbian, then this would make it too much of a Nokia product."

Earlier this month, Psion's shareholders voted in favour of the sale of its stake to Nokia. However, other Symbian shareholders can now step in and buy part of the Psion stake themselves under the terms of their pre-emption rights.

"If all the shareholders were to exercise their pre-emption rights, Nokia's stake would only increase to 48 per cent," the Ericsson spokesman added.

Nokia is already the largest Symbian shareholder with a 32.2 per cent stake, compared to Ericsson with 17.5 per cent. Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson all have smaller stakes. In theory, any single player would need a 70 per cent stake before it would have genuine control of Symbian - leading to speculation that other shareholders may soon cash in by selling out to Nokia.

Ericsson refused to comment on what discussions it is already having with these other shareholders, but it seems unlikely that it can persuade them all to up their stakes.

Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK