July/Aug 2004

Psion, the parent company of mobile computing specialist Psion Teklogix, has disposed of its stake in Symbian Software, the company behind the leading operating system for smart mobile phones. It will receive roughly £135.7 million for its share, of which it has already been paid £93.5 million. The balance will come in further instalments over the next two years.

Psion was a founder-member of Symbian, and held nearly a third of the shares (31.1 per cent), and according to Psion chairman David Potter it would have preferred a public flotation of the company. "But changes in the wireless industry mean that the practicality and timing of the IPO are subject to significant uncertainty," he said. Outright sale of its stake therefore presented a more secure proposition.

He says the proceeds will accelerate Psion Teklogix's expansion, which will come through "prudent acquisitions and investments", as well as by organic growth.

Prior to the sale, Nokia held marginally more Symbian shares than Psion (32.2 per cent), but it has now emerged with nearly half the total (47.9 per cent). Of the other shareholders, Ericsson now has 15.6 per cent, Sony Ericsson 13.1 per cent, Panasonic 10.5 per cent, Samsung 4.5 per cent and Siemens 8.4 per cent.

 

Other manufacturers holding Symbian licences include Arima, BenQ, Fujitsu/NTT DoCoMo, LG, Lenovo, Motorola and Sendo. More than 6.67 million Symbian OS-based mobile phones were sold worldwide last year, and the company says over 15 million have been sold so far.

The deal comes in parallel with a £50 million rights issue by Symbian, and David Levin, Symbian's chief executive, says the new investment will enable the company to accelerate Symbian OS development, looking in particular at advanced 2.5G and 3G phones for the mass market.