Motorola buys 50% of UIQ from Sony Ericsson

Mobilewhack.com

on October 16, 2007 4:25 AM | Permalink

Here's some very interesting news, Motorola has bought 50 percent of UIQ shares from Sony Ericsson. The two manufacturers say they will run UIQ as a joint venture committed to the development of open operating systems.

Both Sony Ericsson and Motorola say they want expand the shareholder base of UIQ to include other handset vendors.

The involvement of Motorola would help UIQ to scale up, although the targets for number of devices bound for circulation was not disclosed.

UIQ has grown rapidly since Sony Ericsson bought it from OS developer Symbian in February this year. Today it employs more than 350 staff, up from 142 when it changed owners. The company has also recently opened new offices in London and Budapest, although its headquarters remains in Ronneby, Sweden.

Both Sony Ericsson and Motorola are keen to spur the adoption of so-called smartphones — which aim to combine the functionality of a phone with that of a PC.