Sony Ericsson wants to be just Sony
The Sony Ericsson joint-venture might soon be just Sony, if reports that the Japanese are looking to buy Ericsson's share hold water. The WSJ reports that the talks are on and off currently, and there is nothing certain on the table, although Ericsson's stake is valued at $1.3 to $1.7 billion.
Sony said recently that it will only be making smartphones from now on, no feature phones any more, and obviously wants to create an integrated experience between them, its tablets and computers, and its TVs, stereos and game console. Not to mention it could leverage its music and movies departments through and for its smartphones.
It will need wiggle room to do that, as now it probably has to look for Ericsson's approval on each such decision, like labeling the Xperia Play as Playstation Certified, for example. Moreover, this was adding strong branding to a product with the Ericsson name on it, without the network equipment manufacturer having to lift a finger about it, which mustn't be very pleasing for Sony. We'll breathe a sign of relief, too, it was tiring to write Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro, for example.
source: WSJ
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