European Union approves 50/50 deal for UIQ
Published by Asri al-Baker at 3:03 GMT, December 14th 2007
The deal between Sony Ericsson to co-own UIQ Technology, together with Motorola, has received blessing from the European Union and it seems the approval is the last hurdle before the split-ownership begins. With Sony Ericsson's strong UIQ developer community and Motorola's innovative designs, UIQ's future catalogue looks interesting. Time will tell... Full news after the jump.
Wed Dec 12, 9:03 AM ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson won European backing Wednesday to sell a 50 percent stake of software developer UI Holdings BV to its rival, Motorola Inc.
The European Commission cleared the deal after identifying no antitrust problems and receiving no complaints from rivals.
Sony and Motorola have not disclosed the value of the stake in UI Holdings, the parent company of UIQ Technology AB, UIQ licenses open user interface and development platforms to mobile phone vendors.
Sony Ericsson, itself a 50-50 joint venture between Sony Corp. and LM Ericsson, said the deal with Motorola would help make UIQ a stronger player for selling user interface software for smartphones and media phones to all handset vendors.
Under the agreement, UIQ Technology will be vendor and chipset independent and will be licensed equally to all mobile device vendors in the industry.
Both companies have previously launched a number of Symbian and UIQ based products, including Sony Ericsson's P1 smartphone and W960 Walkman phone and Motorola's MOTO Z8.
Mobile phone companies have been linking up with technology interests to capture a growing market that wants their phones to do more, from mapping and Internet searches, to texting.
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Categories: Links of Interest, Industry
Platforms: UIQ, UIQ 3
News Discussion
Unregist222
Does European Union have to control everything? I'm not sure if it's still European Union, but maybe Soviet Union. How one can call this a free market if it's being fully controlled and ruled by a central authority?
krisse
Quote:
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Does European Union have to control everything? I'm not sure if it's still European Union, but maybe Soviet Union. How one can call this a free market if it's being fully controlled and ruled by a central authority?
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ALL governments, even the most pro-capitalist, have the power to block deals which are anti-competitive, because the market is only of benefit when it is competitive.
Without such regulation, the free market turns into the closed market, where the biggest companies decide what you pay, and prevent any smaller rivals from entering the marketplace.
The EU is no different to the US, they both decide whether large mergers and agreements between massive companies are anti-competitive, and if they are they may well be blocked.
When the Bell telephone company grew too large, the US government stepped in and split it up. That was more than blocking a deal, that was actually taking a company apart, because they felt it no longer served any competitive purpose and was doing the market more harm than good.
It's not FULL control of a market, it's selective control in extreme circumstances. The EU and US only step in when multi-billion dollar corporations are trying to work together instead of competing with each other, as there's a risk they'll fix prices which is a crime.
On a more mundane level, a few years ago in Britain the largest British ice cream company gave away freezers to retailers, on condition that they stocked it exclusively with that company's products. This was anti-competitive, because other ice cream makers couldn't afford to give away freezers, and many shops only have room for one freezer. The British government therefore banned the practice, and forced the freezers to be open to all brands of ice cream.
Unregistes
Is that why they define the correct angle of banannas? To keep the market open?
ares
Yes, Europe was really a better place before the EU...
Nemoi
@ares: Like in 2000+ years before, when Europeans kept killing each for nationalistic reasons? I'd take the EU over that any day.
And in any case, averting the establishment of monopolies and controlling mergers is definitely something where it is much better to have one EU having a say than each of the 27 member states...
Cheers,
Nemo
ares
Errr...i was being ironic...
Unregistered
And from someone who can't even spell "bananas".
Unregistered
Unregistered: I can spell "bananas" much better than you and in 7 languages, it's just my crappy EU-made keyboard acting up.
Nemoi: it's really fully how you only see two possibilities: either EU or nacizm and concentration camps. Really funny. Typical propaganda in Stalin style: either us or deadly imperialism. ROTFL.
Crazy Russian
Ha... Смешно пошутили.. Guys, you don't even imagine, what the REAL authorities control is..
Unregistered
Unregistered: Is that why they define the correct angle of banannas? To keep the market open?
Yes, of course banana angles must be regulated - if bent too much, the angle would be closed, and we wouldn't have an open banana market anymore!
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