SONY BUYS OUT ERICSSON TO TAKE CONTROL OF COMPANY

We reported earlier on a rumor that Sony was buying Ericsson's half of Sony-Ericsson. That rumor is now confirmed and we have learned how much Sony is paying to acquire full control of the failed partnership, $1.45 billion! By acquiring full control Sony believes that it will be able to be more competitive, produce new hardware faster, and allow phones to “seamlessly connect” with other product categories e.g. laptops, tablets, and TVs.

The buyout not only sees Sony take control of Sony Ericsson, but also includes a broad IP cross-licensing agreement with Ericsson including taking ownership of “five essential patent families.”

Although this could be viewed as a split between the two companies, it seems anything but. Ericsson will now focus on the global wireless market, but has also setup a wireless connectivity initiative with Sony. The aim is to make it simple to connect different devices across multiple platforms.

RUMOR: SONY BUYING ERICSSON HALF OF SONY ERICSSON

Rumors of Sony’s plan to purchase Ericsson’s stake in the companies’ joint Sony Ericsson venture have come and gone over the years, but a new report claims the deed is nearly done. Sony is nearing a deal to take complete control of the cell phone vendor according to The Wall Street Journal, and analysts estimate that Ericsson’s 50% share of the JV could be worth between $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion. The report states that Sony intends to integrate the Sony Ericsson smartphone business with its tablet, gaming and computer operations in order to save on costs and create more complementary devices. Sony Ericsson reported a net loss of €50 million ($60.3 million US) in the second quarter of 2011.

NORTEL PATENTS WON BY GROUP INCLUDING APPLE, MICROSOFT AND RIM

A group of companies including Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, EMC and Ericsson offered the winning bid in an auction that will net them Nortel’s extensive portfolio of patents. The bankrupt telecommunications company held roughly 6,000 patents, and the six-company consortium’s winning bid came in at $4.5 billion. Among the big losers were Google, which opened the bidding at $900 million, and Intel. Patents within the massive cache cover a wide range of technologies including wireless, voice, networking, optical data transmission and 4G LTE. RIM said it would be responsible for $770 million of the winning bid, and Ericsson separately stated it would pay $340 million. The rest of the companies in the consortium did not disclose their contributions.

XPERIA PLAY COMING TO VERIZON

According to Wirefly Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, aka Playstation Phone, is coming to Verizon exclusively. On a page comparing the iPhone 4 to the Play, it states Verizon will be the carrier for the Play.

We expect to get the official lowdown on Sunday February 13th when Sony Ericsson has a press event at Mobile World Congress.

XPERIA PLAY COMING FEBRUARY 13TH

Sony Ericsson has officially acknowledged the Xperia Play, aka Playstation Phone, in a Super Bowl ad. According to the ad, the highly anticipated phone will be announced at an event on February 13th.

The Play has a 4-inch multi-touch 854 x 480 LCD display, single core 1Ghz processor coupled with an Adreno 205 GPU. It has 512MB of RAM and runs Android Gingerbread. The Xperia Play will have the usual Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11n and an FM transmitter. The Xperia Play is also a gaming machine and when the screen is slid up a PlayStation dual-shock style control is revealed. PSP Go games will be available.