TOKYO — Japan’s Sony Corp. and Sweden’s telecommunications giant LM Ericsson are discussing a possible tie-up of their cell phone operations to expand global market share, a Sony spokesman said Thursday.
“Sony and Ericsson are considering the possibility of business cooperation in the portable phone field, but details are yet to be decided,” Sony spokesman Tetsuo Kanno quoted a Sony release as saying.
Earlier, Kanno stopped short of confirming a Japanese news report Thursday morning that the two companies recently reached a basic agreement in which their cell phone businesses will be unified into a yet-to-be established joint venture firm in Britain.
According to the report by public broadcaster NHK television, Sony and Ericsson will also jointly conduct research and development of a next-generation high-speed cellular phone. The network quoted company sources it did not identify.
The report said it would be the first time in the world that leading manufacturing companies separated their core cell phone operations from their parent companies, the report said.
With the tie-up, Sony and Ericsson will aim to reduce cell phone development costs on a third-generation portable phone that can transmit moving images and music, while trying to increase international market share, the report said.
Ericsson, based in Stockholm, sold 40 million cell phones last year, taking a 10-percent global market share and ranking as the No. 3 maker of cell phones in the world, Sony’s Kanno said.
Sony’s global cell phone market is estimated at about 1 percent, Kanno said.
