On October 27 Sony announced its plans to buy out Ericsson’s stake in the Sony Ericsson joint venture. Later on we heard that the Sony Ericsson brand will be phased out by mid-2012 and at this year’s CES the company announced its rebranding plans: Sony Mobile Communications.

Official word is out that Sony Ericsson is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony. Ericsson has transferred its 50% stake in the joint venture, together with “the broad IP cross-licensing agreement”, in return of 1.05 billion EUR (roughly $1.368 billion). The division will now be officially operating as Sony Mobile Communications and we’ve already seen the first Sony-only branded device.

Source: Ericsson, Sony