Symbian gets extra funding for next-generation open standard developments

date: January 29, 2002

Symbian today announces a further funding round from its shareholders. Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia and Psion have committed further funding pro rata to their existing shareholdings. Sony Ericsson has taken up Ericsson's pro rata subscription rights, becoming a new shareholder. Symbian is to receive a total of £20.75m additional funding to take the company through the next phase of its development. As at 31st December 2001, Symbian Ltd had net cash of £16.9 million.

Katsumi Ihara, President, Sony Ericsson, said: "We see Symbian OS as a key enabler for our GPRS and 3G smartphones as well as being important for a large and committed 3rd party application developer community."

This latest development builds on the growing industry acceptance of Symbian OS as the standard operating system for 2.5G and 3G mobile phones. Symbian recently announced Fujitsu as a licensee of Symbian OS, joining existing licensees Ericsson, Matsushita , Motorola, Nokia, Psion, Kenwood, Sanyo, Siemens, and Sony. With devices already shipping from Nokia, Ericsson and Psion, 2002 will see the introduction of the first 2.5G Symbian OS phone - the Nokia 7650 - in the second quarter, 2002.

Yasuo Katsura, President, Matsushita Communication Industrial said: "Panasonic continues its commitment to Symbian. Symbian's support for open standards and its advanced operating system make it the natural choice for Panasonic's next generation phones. Panasonic is planning to introduce Symbian OS for GPRS and future 3G mobile phones."

Matti Alahuhta, President, Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia, said: "Nokia is committed to Symbian, and as we have previously stated, at least half of our 3G devices in 2004 will be based on Symbian OS."

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