A new press release just in tells us that Nokia are to acquire Symbian Limited which will enable the evolution of the leading open mobile platform, Nokia have just announced in their press release that they have launched a huge cash offer to acquire all Symbian Limited Shares that they do not own already.

It will be at a price of EUR 3.647 per share which means the net outlay from giants Nokia to purchase the approximately 52% of Symbian Limited shares it does not already own will be approximately EUR 264 million, Nokia have already received irrevocable undertakings from Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. Ltd, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), and Siemens International Holding BV to accept the offer, this will represent around about 91% of the Symbian shares subject to the offer, Nokia are also expecting Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to accept the offer as well.

This acquisition is a huge and of course fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation and together with AT&T, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, NTT DOCOMO, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, Motorola, Texas Instruments and LG Electronics, you can read more about the planned foundation at www.symbianfoundation.org.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia said “This is a significant milestone in our software strategy” Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers.”

“The wide support for this initiative, uniting the industry around the Symbian platform, reflects the strong gravitational pull it has for application developers and other ecosystem players. We will drive efficient, open innovation by unifying the platform and simplifying the software supply chain, leveraging our experience from mobile devices. Nokia is strongly positioned to realize the benefits of open innovation, as well as accelerating time to market, enabling us to meet and exceed consumer expectations for leading converged devices and experiences”, Kallasvuo continued.

Mobile devices based on Symbian OS account for 60% of the converged mobile device segment (source: Canalys, 12 months to Q1 2008). Symbian OS represented approximately 7% of all mobile device sales in 2007, up from 5% in 2006 (source: Strategy Analytics). To date, more than 200 million Symbian OS based phones have been shipped, over 235 models, from 8 vendors and on more than 250 mobile networks around the world. More than 4 million developers are engaged in producing applications for Symbian devices.

Nokia expects the acquisition to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008 and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. On a reported basis, Nokia expects the transaction to be dilutive in 2009, approximately breakeven in 2010, and accretive in 2011. On a cash basis, Nokia expects the transaction to be dilutive in 2009 and accretive in 2010 and 2011. After the closing, all Symbian employees will become Nokia employees.

Note to Editors:
A press conference will be webcast live from London today at 11:00 UK time and will be available for replay later. To see the web cast, please visit www.nokia.com/press or www.symbianfoundation.org