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The new company, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, will start operations on October 1, it was announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.
"The new company will be the number one in the mobile phones market," Ase Lindskog, Ericsson's Director of Media Relations, stated confidently on Wednesday. "Why shouldn't it? We have the knowledge for it."
The mobile phones produced by the new company will be on the market from the second half of 2002 onwards. It has not been announced yet what the brand name of the new mobiles will be. The headquarters of the new company will be in London.
"Sony Ericsson will focus on 3G (third generation) mobile phones," Lindskog added, saying that 3G is the "main challenge" facing mobile phone companies. "The new company will work primarily on marketing, branding and design, while Ericsson will provide the chips for the mobiles," she said.
While the mobile phone division of Ericsson will merge with Sony, the Ericsson parent company will continue to work on applications such as Bluetooth and mobile platforms.
The board of directors of Sony Ericsson will be roughly half Swedish and half Japanese. Katsumi Ihara will be the President of Sony Ericsson, while Jan Wareby will act as Executive Vice President.
Lindskog did not comment on the possible consequences of the deal for the 2,400 Ericsson employees in Dublin, Athlone and Cork. A spokesperson of Ericsson Ireland also refused to comment. ElectricNews.Net reported in July that job losses in Ireland are a possibility, after Ericsson chief executive Kurt Hellstrom said R&D programs may be cut.
The combined mobile phone sales of Ericsson and Sony were USD7.2 billion in 2000, representing 50 million handsets. However, the mobile phone divisions of both companies have reported losses recently.
With the joint venture the companies hope to combine the consumer electronics experience of Sony with Ericsson's wireless and telecommunications knowledge.
More info at: http://www.ericsson.com and http://www.world.sony.com.
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