The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony is looking to buyout their partnership with Ericsson in an attempt to obtain complete control of the Sony Ericsson brand. The buyout would end a 50-50 joint venture between Sony and Ericsson that began a decade ago in 2001. The companies have been in discussions about the buyout for years, but sources say the deal is actually nearing completion. The deal would allow Sony to more effectively integrate the phones into their overall mobile product brand, which most prominently includes tablets and portal video game devices.
Ever since smart phones rose to prominence, Sony Ericsson has been lagging behind the rest of the mobile market. However, Sony is actually quite successful in parts of the mobile market; for instance, they’re the only company to ever produce a successful portable gaming device that was able to directly compete with and survive Nintendo’s portable gaming devices. It’ll be interesting to see what Sony can do once they fully take the reins of their mobile phone division. Hopefully something better than the mediocre Xperia Play.
(The Wall Street Journal via The Next Web)
- Sony is actually pretty good at controlling their own brand lately
- Though they’re not particularly good at fixing customer computers
- At least that Xperia Play has Minecraft
