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Filed under: Helio , Virgin Mobile , MVNOs , Misc We know, the little possibility that the whole deal could fall apart has been keeping you wide awake for months, but at long last, you can push aside your anxiety and hit the sack. Virgin Mobile USA announced today that it had "completed its acquisition of Helio," and all of the terms put forth on June 27th were used in the final close. Aside from garnering all the necessary regulatory approvals, Helio shareholders SK Telecom and EarthLink have received 13 million shares of Virgin Mobile USA Class A common stock, with a value of around $38 million. It's also noted that both SK Telecom and Virgin Group will each invest a cool $25 million in Virgin Mobile USA for preferred shares. And then, there was one . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Others , NEC , NTT DoCoMo , Kyocera , Misc , Casio , Apple It doesn't take a finance major to figure out these two things are correlated, but yes, the fact that NTT DoCoMo saw profits increase some 41% while handset sales across Japan plummeted 20% do in fact have a common link. You see, DoCoMo (among others) has decided to lower rates and reduce subsidies in order to better exploit market conditions; the end result is that consumers are buying new handsets less often, leading to decreased sales for firms like Sharp and Matsushita. Many analysts are suggesting that some of the smaller outfits are likely to band together in an attempt to take on the new market, with IDC analyst Michito Kimura proclaiming that Japan would have "fewer mobile phone makers, fewer handset sales agents and fewer cellphone models." Hard to say if that's a net positive or negative just yet, but it should be interesting to watch, regardless. [Via mocoNews , image courtesy of Flickr ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Motorola , Misc It has been a solid tick since Motorola had a quarterly earnings report that it didn't just send over via the paper airplane method and run for the hills , but the most recent one was actually worth cracking a smile over. After moving more mobiles in North America than it expected too, shares shot up 13% and bullish analysts began to think that the worst was over. Chief Executive Greg Brown noted that Moto will be "adding substantially to its product portfolio" here in the near future, which will hopefully enable it to get a stronger grasp on the number 3 handset maker ranking. During the most recent quarter, the outfit shipped 28.1 million phones to just barely maintain its market share lead over LG, though it remains to be seen if it can keep this up. No pressure Moto, no pressure at all . [Via RCRWireless ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Handsets , Others , Windows Mobile , GSM , Misc From the outside, it has been easy to assume that everything was humming along nicely at Neonode 's California / Sweden-based offices. Based on a recent open letter issued by the interim CEO and chairman Per Bystedt (not to mention the earnings report), that is indeed not at all the case. Neonode has failed at meeting guidance and anticipated sales for this year, with a number of things partially to blame. For starters, it admittedly tried to enter "too many markets, too fast," and a recall of the N2 surrounding "reception issues" didn't make things any better. Bystedt confessed to having just south of $3 million of his own money invested in the outfit, while he asked for other shareholders to be patient as he attempted to right the ship. Best of luck to ya -- we hear it's a pretty tough sector. [Warning: PDF read link] [Via RCRWireless ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Culture , Handsets , Nokia , Misc Germany wanted $6.2 million in research subsidies back from Nokia, and in addition to the "tens of millions" that the company has already relinquished after the highly-disputed Bochum plant closing , it'll be coughing up another €1.3 million ($2.04 million) to hopefully close the door on the matter. Said payment will be addressed to North Rhine-Westphalia, which was quite angry after the handset maker decided to hack 2,300 jobs from Germany and relocate operations to Romania for "lower labor costs." The sum here is in addition to the €20 million "Growth for Bochum" foundation that the outfit started, but apparently that show of goodwill didn't really change the hearts of those already bitter. [Via PhoneScoop , image courtesy of Reuters ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Sony Ericsson , Misc Although Sony Ericsson just churned out a rather impressive array of new handsets this month, it seems the outfit is still having trouble securing record-setting profits. Truthfully, it's struggling to break even, as evidenced by the second profit warning of 2008 that was issued last week. SE is pinpointing "disappointing European sales of its mid- and high-end mobile phones" as the reason it will likely not see a profit in Q2, and some analysts are suggesting that shipment delays and a dearth of low-end handsets also carry a share of the blame. 'Course, the hotly-anticipated Xperia X1 could certainly make for a lovely Q3 , but only time will tell if enough folks shell out for it to make a difference. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments