Sony close to deal to buy Ericsson out of Sony Ericsson, WSJ says

By all accounts, the marriage of Sony's and Ericsson's mobile businesses hasn't been the success either parent company would've liked; the European joint venture largely failed to capitalize on the early days of the smartphone revolution, having been hamstrung by its investments in Symbian and the failed UIQ platform. The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Sony's patience may be wearing thin, quoting "people familiar with the matter" as saying that talks are ongoing that would see the Japanese giant buy out Ericsson's stake to take full control of the company. With the new Tablet S and Tablet P, there's little doubt that a closer tie to the phone business would make sense for Sony from an engineering and design perspective; that said, one of WSJ's sources says that the talks could "break apart at any time," so it would seem the paperwork hasn't bee signed just yet.