Sony has bought full control of mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson from Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson, agreeing to buy 50% of the firm for 1.1bn euros to make the mobile handset business a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.
The transaction also includes a patent deal, patents seemingly extremely important and a lucrative source of revenue these days as well as being the cause of countless lawsuits between the major technology companies. Sony will get the five sets of patents that are essential to making the phones and a licensing agreement on any other intellectual property.