 | |
| Company type | Private company limited by shares |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, business services |
| Predecessor | Psion |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Defunct | 2 December 2008 |
| Fate | Acquired by Nokia |
| Successor | Symbian Foundation (2008–2011) |
| Headquarters | , England |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Juha Christensen, Colly Myers, David Levin, Nigel Clifford |
| Products | Symbian OS |
Number of employees | 1,178 (2007) |
| Subsidiaries | UIQ Technology (until 2007) |
Symbian Ltd. was a software development and licensing consortium company, known for the Symbian operating system (OS), for smartphones and some related devices.[1] Its headquarters were in Southwark, London, England, with other offices opened in Cambridge, Sweden, Silicon Valley, Japan, India, China, South Korea, and Australia.
It was established on 24 June 1998 as a partnership between Psion, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Sony, to exploit the convergence between personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones, and a joint-effort to prevent Microsoft from extending its desktop computer monopoly into the mobile devices market.[2] Ten years to the day after it was established, on 24 June 2008, Nokia announced that they intended to acquire the shares that they did not own already, at a cost of €264 million.[3] On the same day the Symbian Foundation was announced, with the aim to "provide royalty-free software and accelerate innovation",[4] and the pledged contribution of the Symbian OS and user interfaces.
The acquisition of Symbian Ltd. by Nokia was completed on 2 December 2008,[5] at which point all Symbian employees became Nokia employees. Transfer of relevant Symbian Software Ltd. leases, trademarks, and domain names from Nokia to the Symbian Foundation was completed in April 2009.[6] On 18 July 2009, Nokia's Symbian professional services department, which was not transferred to the Symbian Foundation, was sold to the Accenture consulting company.[7]
- ^ "Symbian Ltd". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ "Farewell then, Symbian". The Register.
- ^ "Nokia to acquire Symbian Limited to enable evolution of the leading open mobile platform". Nokia. 24 June 2008. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ "Mobile leaders to unify the Symbian software platform and set the future of mobile free". Nokia. 24 June 2008. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ "Nokia acquires Symbian Limited". Nokia. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ "Can you feel it?". Symbian Blog. Symbian Foundation. 2 April 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ Prodhan, Georgina (17 July 2009). "Accenture to buy Symbian services unit from Nokia". Reuters. Retrieved 26 July 2009.