Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

When a single manufacturer accounts for an overwhelming majority of your license revenue, it stands to reason that said manufacturer might save a little dough in the long haul by acquiring you outright. And so it goes for the long, passionate relationship between UIQ and licensee Sony Ericsson; of the 13 handsets running the Symbian-based platform, nearly half — six in all — have been designed and produced by Sony Ericsson, with the remainder split between Motorola and Arima units that haven’t seen been met with nearly as much publicity. The Swedish company, currently owned by Symbian itself, will be transferred to Sony Ericsson (pending clearance of the typical bureaucratic stuff, of course) for an undisclosed sum but will continue to operate as an independent entity with the current management team in place. Though UIQ promises that its platform will continue to be available “on equal terms to all its licensees,” the move makes official what’s been known for years: that UIQ is to Sony Ericsson what S60 is to Nokia, an interpretation of the Symbian smartphone operating system to call its own. Will UIQ ever match S60′s popularity, particularly in the Symbian-friendly European market? Probably not, but with a committed partner now laying out the requisite cash, it does seem more likely than ever that UIQ’s here to stay — and as always, we’re all about choice.

[Via All About Symbian]

 

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals

After months of speculation, including a period when it looked like the supposed deal was surely dead, AMD has now officially announced plans to buy graphics giant ATI for $5.4 billion. The sale, which is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter pending shareholder, regulatory, and court approval, will result in AMD paying $20.47 (in a mix of cash and stock) for each share of ATI. As you might expect, the news sent ATI's stock price skyrocketing, while shares of AMD dropped due to investor concern that the semiconductor manufacturer is overpaying for its purchase. AMD CEO Hector Ruiz cited his company's burgeoning relationship with Dell as one of the main reasons for the merger, as the newly-formed entity may now be able to snatch even more Dell business away from rival Intel. Some analysts, however, feel that the deal will have negative consequences in the short term, as it may distract both companies -- already struggling to compete on performance -- from pushing out innovative products in their respective categories. Still, the fact that AMD will now be able to offer integrated graphics solutions to PC manufacturers in the same manner as Intel should be enough to help it gain market share in the long run. Either way, we can't wait to see what the new company has in store for us...

[Thanks, Karl]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

The rumor's been churning so long now it's starting to look legit -- remember what happened with Dell and Alienware? It's looking especially probable that Bloomberg's got ahold of some inside information that says AMD is positioned to acquire ATI for 5.5 billion smackers. We know the big buyout rumor mongering is starting to sound redundant, but we'll all find out one way or another come Monday (or this week, anyway) when either AMD and ATI ink the deal, or the two companies continue to go it alone in their respective blood-wars on Intel (and to a lesser extent, NVIDIA).

P.S. -For what it's worth, the WSJ also thinks the deal's about to go down.

[Thanks, Ben]

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Filed under: Sprint-Nextel, CDMA, Misc

In a move that surprises absolutely no one keeping up on the aftermath of Sprint Nextel's merger, the acquisition of Sprint affiliate UbiquiTel has closed this week in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.3 billion. In exchange for taking on UbiquiTel's $300-odd million of net debt, Sprint Nextel adds an additional 452,000 direct subscribers and gains territory in 9 states for a total of roughly 8.3 million in population. Even better, they avoid the wrath of yet another affiliate miffed by the non-compete clause busting merger, which added Nextel territory to many areas serviced by Sprint affiliates and vice versa. With the billions Sprint has now shed on affiliate buyouts, mergin' ain't as cheap as it used to be, it seems.

[Via The Wireless Report]

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Filed under: HTC, Windows Mobile

HTC, seasoned manufacturer of highly desirable Windows Mobile devices big and small, has agreed to acquire at least 51% of Taiwanese VAR Dopod in a transaction that "will not surpass $150 million." The deal smells a bit improper, seeing how HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang is a controlling shareholder in Dopod, but there is some logic to the acquisition -- it positions HTC a little closer to its adoring public, giving it a recognized brand name (at least in some parts of the world) and a sales channel to push its wares. Of course, Dopod doesn't have much brand awareness outside Asia, but if HTC decides to go big with their new toy, the Qteks and i-mates of the world might have reason to find a different line of work -- or at least a different OEM of choice.

[Via Smartphone Thoughts]

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Filed under: Motorola

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Filed under: Vodafone

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Filed under: Multimedia, Nokia

Why buy the cow? Because the milk definitely ain’t free; Nokia got a taste of their wares back in 2004, but today announced the were buying Loudeye outright. Nope, apparently Nokia just thought it would be cheaper to buy the firm, which (among other things) specializes in the wholesale setting up of new PlaysForSure partners, outright for 60 million. The intention is, we’d imagine, to push hard to bypass all this absurd carrier torpidity and make online digital music something that maybe isn’t an incredibly expensive, incredibly painful experience for consumers. Of course, considering the problems they had knocking out their first PlaysForSure compatible musicphone um, multimedia computer, the N91, we might wonder how long they’re going to take to make good on the promise. Either way, it looks if you were thinking of setting up shop online to compete with Yahoo and Napster and Real vending tunes, you should probably no longer be looking as closely at enlisting Loudeye’s services as you once might have.

[Via Yahoo, thanks Mike]

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Filed under: Sprint-Nextel, CDMA, Misc

The endless barrage of legal fallout resulting from Sprint Nextel’s merger continues, the latest onslaught coming from iPCS, a Sprint affiliate operating throughout much of the Midwest. According to Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois, the merger violated Sprint’s agreement with iPCS to not infringe on their territory (a common theme in affiliates’ lawsuits) and is demanding that Sprint file a plan for divesting itself of its Nextel operations in Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska by September 6. Naturally, Sprint intends to appeal “vigorously,” though as in so many other cases, an acquisition ultimately seems possible — if not probable.

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