Nokia is on a quest to maintain its worldwide dominance in cellular handset sales. Nokia is reported to hold about 40% of the worldwide handset market. One of the hottest segments of that market is smartphones.

The Symbian OS is the most popular smartphone operating system around with about 60% of that smartphone market. Currently Nokia owns a 48% share of Symbian Ltd and is looking to add the remaining 52% of Symbian to its portfolio.

Some other big names in the electronics industry own portions of Symbian Ltd including Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens, and Samsung. Nokia has offered to buy all remaining shares of Symbian Ltd in a deal valued at £208m. So far the only company that has not accepted Nokia’s offer is Samsung. Nokia says that it expects Samsung will accept as well. A Symbian Foundation will be formed and the previous owners of Symbian shares will be in the foundation and get royalty free access to the Symbian OS.

Via Computerweekly