Nokia offered 264 million Euros to buy out Symbian, and it appears this deal is on track, says chief development officer Mary McDowell, and should be just about a done deal by mid-December. This could be a potentially huge move in the mobile OS environment by Nokia.
The offer to acquire the last remaining unowned shares of Symbian was made by Nokia in June. Since then, a bunch of other companies have joined the original 10-member org to form the Symbian Foundation, which could turn into a powerful new force in the open source mobile OS universe.
For Nokia, members of the Symbian Foundation, and the open-source community, this is a victory and a huge development in the history of open source. Indeed, since Nokia plans to roll out new phone based on the Symbian technology as early as 2010 (or maybe even sooner), the deal should speed up even more.
McDowell also hints that Nokia may add to their service line in the near future, with possibly high-end internet services involved, involving the newly formed Symbian Foundation. It’s safe to say that Nokia could be a high-roller in the future of open source development for mobile phones. We’ll keep you updated.
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