This week in the mobile world has been dominated by Nokia's decision to buy out the remaining shares of Symbian. Analysts and experts are of the view that Nokia took this step to counter the threat from Google's Android. It would be interesting to see how other players in the mobile world would be affected by this.
Interestingly, the valuation of Symbian hasn't changed too much over a period of years. In 2003, Samsung bought 5% stake for 17M Pounds (valuing the company at 340M pounds). Later in 2003, when Motorola sold its 19% stake of Psion to Nokia, Symbian's valuation was at 300M Pounds. The current buy by Nokia, values Symbian at 400M Pounds.
The deal has also come quite cheap to Nokia. In 2007, Symbian had a royalty earnings of 179M Pounds, 75% of which was from Nokia. So, Nokia anyways would have paid the 210M Pounds it spent on Symbian acquisition, by end 2009 anyways. More analysis by ARCChart here.
2. Virgin Mobile to acquire SK controlled Helio
Virgin Mobile has said it would acquire SK controlled Helio.
According to the Financial Times, Virgin Mobile USA last month reported net income of $4.8 million for the first quarter of the year, down 75% on the same period last year. It also said it expects to lose between 130,000 and 160,000 subscribers in the second quarter.
Unusually in the US, all of Virgin Mobile's 5.1 million customers are all pay-as-you-go whereas the norm is to tie customers into long contracts which are more profitable and predictable for operators. Helio brings almost 200,000 customers to the party, all of whom are on monthly contracts. The obvious thing for Virgin to do is build on this base and increase the number of contract customers. More here.
3. RIM Q profit doubles
(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Research In Motion reported a first-quarter profit of $482.5 million, up from the same period a year ago as revenue more than doubled.
RIM said that its profit amounted to $0.84 per diluted share for the three months ended May 31 compared with a profit of $223.2 million or $0.39 per diluted share a year ago.
Revenue in the quarter was $2.24 billion, up from $1.08 billion.
However, shares in the BlackBerry maker fell during after-hours trading because the earnings fell short of market expectations.
The company said it added 2.3 million net new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter for a total of over 16 million subscribers.
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