Regulators clear Sony Ericsson, Motorola deal

Sony Ericsson won European backing to sell a 50% stake of software developer UI Holdings BV to its rival, Motorola, an Associated Press report said.

The European Commission cleared the deal after identifying no antitrust problems and receiving no complaints from rivals, the Associated Press report said.

The report added that Sony and Motorola have not disclosed the value of the stake in UI Holdings, the parent company of UIQ Technology AB, UIQ licenses open user interface and development platforms to mobile phone vendors.

Sony Ericsson said the deal with Motorola would help make UIQ a stronger player for selling user interface software for smartphones and media phones to all handset vendors.

Under the agreement, UIQ Technology will be vendor and chipset independent and will be licensed equally to all mobile device vendors in the industry, the Associated Press report said.

Both companies have previously launched a number of Symbian and UIQ based products, including Sony Ericsson's P1 smartphone and W960 Walkman phone and Motorola's MOTO Z8, the report further said.