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Sony’s done it all – tablets, TVs, cameras, media players for all digital formats and physical media, video games, headphones. You name any consumer and even professional tech product class and their hand has probably been in that pot more than a few times. Now they want to add phones to their repertoire.
Sony wants to move past the partnership they have with Ericsson for phones and gobble up Ericsson’s mobile division, according to the Wall Street Journal. This would probably eventually kill the “Sony Ericsson” brand and end a partnership that has served both parties well for quite some time.
While they currently have half a brand with Ericsson’s offerings, they’ll want to develop phones with just “Sony” on them and advertise them like only Sony knows how. Then again, we’re not yet sure if this is a brand thing or a money thing, but we do know Sony’s probably going to be putting up a whole ton of money to make this happen.
Analysts have valued Sony Ericsson at $1.3-$1.7 billion, and while the company may not sell for that exact amount, anything in that range (or higher) is sure to be seen as a major acquisition.
From the sounds of things, the deal may be close but WSJ’s sources say things could fall apart any minute (as is the case with any high-profile acquisition proposal). It wouldn’t be a bad merger, I’d say, as Sony normally exudes quality in everything they do. We can’t imagine things will be any different here. [WSJ]
Think you are showing your age here! As Sony were releasing mobiles way before the Sony Ericsson deal?
Yup…Sony used to make cell phones. I used to have one of these bad boys back in the day as a youngster: http://0.tqn.com/d/cellphones/1/0/1/9/sony_zuma_cm-z100.jpg
And as for the quality product in “everything” they do…for the most part. Their audio has always left more to be desired.
Lol @ Andrew and JC yea I was born in 88, I have never heard of a Sony (no Ericsson) mobile. What year did that phone come out?
Don’t know what to expect, but please do whatever is neccesary to release playstation suite to more devices!
Sony and open source seem to inherently conflict with each other
Holy cow!!! This has the potential to be really great!!! :O
Do it, Sony!!!! :D
They should have let Samsung purchase them and their future phones will have superb hardware.
I want this for one reason and one reason only, so they can go full hog at making a proper playstation phone. Who knows, maybe in a few generations they can weave in Vita compatibility.
Such is the dream
yeah I think the ericsson part was just too timid
don’t they still release phones in japan as just sony?
@ Quentyn
LOL mate check this out.
http://www.telix.pl/telefon/sony-cmd-c5-209.html
Sony CMD CT was one of my first phones :))
First was Ericsson but dont remember the model but it was in 1996 :)
Sony, u jelly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZhorF7KaRk