Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to buy rest of US PacketVideo

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile phone operator, said Monday it will spend $111.6 million to acquire the rest of PacketVideo Corp., a mobile technology company.

The Japanese carrier said it will purchase 65 percent of San Diego, California-based PacketVideo pending approval from its parent firm, NextWave Wireless Inc., and U.S. regulators.

DoCoMo, which acquired a 35 percent share in 2009 for $45.5 million, uses PacketVideo’s multimedia players in its handsets.

In Japan, the major carriers traditionally maintain strict control of the software that goes into the mobile phones used on their networks, although this is gradually changing with the popularity of high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone and others that run on Google’s Android operating system.

PacketVideo’s multimedia software is also used in other handsets worldwide.

Parent company NextWave is struggling with deep losses and facing a possible share delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Associated Press

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