The Wall Street Journal reports Sony plans to pay for full control of mobile joint venture Sony-Ericsson-- kicking Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson out and integrating smartphone, tablet, handheld gaming and PC businesses in the process.
The 50-50 joint venture was created in 2001, and is currently the 6th biggest mobile vendor in the world. It achieved early success by porting Sony brands (including Walkman and Cybershot) to mobile devices, before losing mobile market share to both Nokia and Apple.
Meanwhile the long-planned "Playstation Phone," the Xperia Play, fell flat on launch with sales remaining relatively low.
Analysts at JP Morgan estimate the deal could total more than $1.3 bilion-- depending on agreements between the 2 companies over Ericsson patents.
Sony and Ericsson decline to comment on the story by the time of writing.