Ericsson looking to dump cell phone business; Sony to buy its stake in SE?
This one definitely falls into the unconfirmed rumors category for the time being, but a German magazine is reporting Ericsson has had enough of the consumer cell phone game. According to the report, Ericsson is looking to dump its stake in the company’s joint venture with Sony, Sony Ericsson, and stick to what it does best — infrastructure, back end network components and the like. The magazine also states that Sony may be toying with the idea of picking up Ericsson’s share of the JV and controlling 100 percent of the company. We’re not sure how the struggling Japanese manufacturer plans to scrape up enough cash for a deal like this but where there’s a will (and an electronics empire) there’s a way. It will definitely be interesting to see how this one plays out as it would certainly be the end of an era. An Ericsson rep declined to comment on the story.
[Via MobileBurn]
Well, SE was a good strong brand. Even if Sony takes up all of the joint venture’s stake, it will still be solid. My question is how will innovation be affected otherwise?
The X1 was awful, I’m not surprised
I had the Ericsson 318vi back in the day or something like that and loved it.
I also have the Sony Ericsson T610 and loved that.
Its not that Sony and Ericsson make crap phones – They do make some crap ones but also make some really nice ones, its that their phones are so plain and boring, much like Nokia – nothing looks different about the rest of them. Matter of fact, ALL phone manus are looking the same now except HTC and BlackBerry.
At the end of the day, Ericsson is making the best choice to stick to what they did best in the past… INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SAID PHONES
Hm, if Sony owns 100% of the company, will they finally allow the creation of a PSPhone?
Though for the most part I agree with Roger A- SE = Motorola = Nokia = Samsung = LG, all the dumbphone manufacturers are the same… (except for maybe their choice of smartphone OSes)
not true…..
SE will keep making phones under same terms…
I rather have ericsson swing their own route. They produced far better products in quality when they were not with Sony. For example the t28z.
God i miss that phone…
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Tumwater United States
can we still buy t28z?
i love that phone too…..
I am sure you can still find a couple on ebay, too bad it was 1900 mhz only according to the spec sheet, did they make other variants?
I still have mine.
Still looks very sexy…
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Tumwater United States
this is one sad news. Ericsson phones were really nice ones. the t28z was the best
Wasnt that into phone geekery back then, but i loved my t28 world. Not sure if that was the z. Sideways tetris for the win.
Well here we are 6 months on and the prediction looks like coming true. SE will close it’s US HQ at RTP (a former Ericsson site) and move it to Atlanta (A Sony site).
I think Ericsson (and Sony’s) management philosophy is this: If you set out to create a pile of gold, but only succeed in turning it into a pile of shit, then take a running kick at it, sending it flying in all directions, and see if it comes down as gold.