Sony completes Sony Ericsson acquisition


16 Feb 2012

The Sony Xperia S

Sony has completed the acquisition of Sony Ericsson and will rename it ‘Sony Mobile Communications’ as it integrates it with its consumer electronics business.

Sony said that now that the mobile company has been fully acquired, Sony aims to accelerate “convergence between Sony’s line-up of network-enabled consumer electronics products, including smartphones, tablets, TVs and PCs.”

In October, Sony announced it would buy out its stake in the Sony Ericsson joint venture from Ericsson as part of a US$1.47bn deal in order to include smartphones in its consumer electronics line-up.

It also gave Sony a broad intellectual property cross-licensing agreement covering all of Sony’s products and services, as well as ownership of five patent families.

Last month, the European Commission approved the deal, allowing the acquisition to proceed.