The agreement proved highly controversial with Psion’s largest shareholder Phoenix Asset Management Partners Ltd insisting the company could get a bigger return by pushing for a Symbian IPO, while Symbian shareholders Ericsson and Siemens have expressed reservations about Nokia dominating the Symbian consortium.
Holders of 255 million shares voted on the plan, with 171.5 million in favor of the proposal and 83.5 million against. Psion chairman David Potter said the vote showed strong institutional support.
The question now is whether Symbian shareholders will use their right to buy a pro rata share of the Psion holding. The other shareholders are Ericsson (17.5%), Panasonic (7.9%), Samsung (5%), Siemens (4.8%), and Sony Ericsson (1.5%). If they were all to insist on a portion of the Psion holdings, Nokia would end up with less than 50% of Symbian.
The issue is emotional because one of the forces behind the Symbian consortium was a determination to ensure that Microsoft did not end up with the same dominance of mobile computing as it has on the desktop. Therefore the prospect of Nokia, which accounts for almost 40% of handset sales, being in control of Symbian fills many of the consortium with dread. Unless the other investors take up their options, the addition of Psion’s shares will give Nokia 63% of Symbian.
Many shareholders who rallied against the deal around the rebel www.pssion.com web site, felt strongly because once it went through it would only leave Psion with its Teklogix operation, which is just one of a number of players offering enterprises rugged mobile computing devices and wireless LANS.
Psion’s shares have lost more than a third of their value since the Symbian share sale was announced.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
