Nokia on Tuesday announced it is going to buy the rest of Symbian (a company which develops operating system for mobiles).

Nokia currently owns 48% share of the company, and will pay $410 million for the rest.

This deal does not come as a surprise if we look at these figures:
Nokia paid $250 million in licensing fee to Symbian last year, so it makes business sense to acquire the whole of it in $410 million.

But it is not the sole reason for takeover. Nokia was more worried that Symbian’s structure will erode its competitive position.
Currently Symbian is being challenged by number of new contender like Google’s Android platform.

To compete with Google’s Android, Symbian will also become an open source based platform.

Nokia expects the acquisition to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008.