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Email ArticleEricsson of Sweden said on Thursday that it had reached an agreement to sell its stake in its struggling cellphone joint venture, Sony Ericsson, to Sony for €1.05 billion euros, or $1.5 billion, marking its final retreat from the mobile handset business now dominated by heavyweights like Apple, Google and Nokia.
The move brings a close to Ericsson’s 20-year involvement in cellphones, a business it once helped pioneer in the 1990s alongside its Scandinavian rival Nokia. But it failed to gain the necessary size or create the products to keep pace with the sector.
Hans Vestberg, the Ericsson chief executive, said in a statement that it no longer made sense for Ericsson to make both mobile networks and handsets. The company, based in Stockholm, is the market leader in mobile networking equipment.
“We will now enhance our focus on enabling connectivity for all devices,’’ Mr. Vestberg said.
Sony said the acquisition of the stake for the equivalent of $1.5 billion would allow it to complete its palette of devices, which include game players, tablet and laptop computers and televisions. Sony said the purchase included a cross-licensing agreement with Ericsson and five patent groups relating to wireless handset technology.
‘‘We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment,’’ said Howard Stringer, the Sony chief executive and president.
Sony and Ericsson combined their unprofitable handset businesses to create Sony Ericsson in October 2001, but the venture never became successful. The handset maker had only a 2.1 percent share of the overall global cellphone market in the second quarter, and a 4.2 percent share of the global smartphone market, according to Canalys, a research firm.
The handset maker has struggled financially for most of its 10-year existence, although it recently broke even.
Sony Ericsson, which makes handsets running Google’s Android operating system, had failed to differentiate itself from other makers of Google handsets, said Pete Cunningham, an analyst at Canalys in London. Whether Sony can make the business profitable and distinctive remains an open question, he said.
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst in London with Gartner, said it would be difficult for Sony to compete with Apple and makers of Android handsets like Samsung, especially in the crucial smartphone segment.
‘‘Sony has been trying to deliver an Apple-like experience for a long time and never quite succeeded in owning the living room and, from there, the consumer,’’ Ms. Milanesi said.
