Symbian gets extra £50m

Shareholders in Symbian, the consortium that makes high-end operating systems (OSs) for mobile phones and PDAs, have moved to keep the mobile operating platform neutral after investing an extra £50m in the firm.

This will help create 300 jobs for developers and support staff.

Panasonic, Siemens and Sony Ericsson have also agreed to join Nokia in the pre-emption process for the purchase of Psion's Symbian equity stake. This means Nokia will achieve a share of only 47.9 per cent in Symbian rather than the 63 per cent controlling share originally predicted.

David Levin, chief executive of Symbian, said the extra cash will help it gain a greater share of the mobile device operating system market, where it competes with Microsoft and PalmSource.

"The driver is the cost of the phones that can be built using Symbian OS and we're looking to win in the mass market," he said.

Jessica Figueras, research director of wireless software at analyst Ovum, said the investment from the mobile manufacturers showed their commitment to the platform, as well as their reluctance to see Nokia take control.

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