AmTech Out with Positive Note on Nokia's (NOK) Symbian Purchase

June 24, 2008 11:23 AM EDT

American Technology Research issued a research report this morning considering Nokia's (NYSE: NOK) announcement that it plans to purchase the remaining 52% stake in smart phone operating system maker Symbian. Nokia will pay $410 million for the rest of the stake, and believes the deal to be dilutive in '09, break-even in '10 and accretive in '11.

The firm notes that the "Symbian Foundation includes impressive membership": Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung, STM, TXN and Vodafone. AmTech believes Nokia is doing this "to increase its control of the overall platform to stave off competition from RIMM, AAPL, MSFT Windows Mobile, and GOOG’s Android." As the new version of Nokia's S60 operating system will be combined with Symbian and offered to all members of the Foundation royalty free, AmTech believes Nokia is trying to create a very large installed base of Symbian users, attracting developers and other handset makers to the platform.

AmTech says that Nokia is essentially trying to become the "Microsoft of the smart phone world". The firm views the "Symbian acquisition as well as Navtaq and Trolltech as big decisions and investments by NOK to achieve its goals."

AmTech maintains a Neutral rating on shares of Nokia.

Nokia Corporation designs, manufactures, and sells a range of mobile devices and networks with services and software worldwide.

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