Rumour - Sony to buy out Ericsson's half of Sony Ericsson

Sonys is said to be willing to pony up $1 billion for Ericsson's stake in the two companies' joint mobile venture.

The Wall Street Journal cites sources close to the deal, which would allow Sony to integrate its smartphone, tablet, and portable gaming business lines.

Sony has made several recent announcements which provide context for such a decision including an increased emphasis on the PlayStation Suite hardware-agnostic development environment and the promotion of Kaz Hirai to an executive role uniting all of Sony's previously-disparate consumer electronic streams.

Ericsson's assets have been valued at between $1.3 and $1.7 billion.

Sony and Ericsson launched their joint mobile phone campaign ten years ago; each company holds a 50 percent stake in the venture. In recent years the brand has released several notable Android devices including the twin-analog equipped Xperia Play.

Thanks, Gamasutra.