Nokia borrows $640 million to fund Symbian R&D

Nokia announced the completion of a €500 million ($640 million U.S.) five-year loan agreement with the European Investment Bank earmarked to fund software research and development projects to make Symbian-based smartphones more competitive. The handset giant adds that the loan will also benefit the work of the non-profit Symbian Foundation and its development of open-source software for mobile devices.

Seventy-eight industry partners have now pledged their support for the Symbian Foundation, with Atelier, Bank of America, Gemalto, HP, Imagination Technologies, Mobica, MySpace, Nanoradio, Omron Software, Qualcomm, SanDisk, SESCA, SiRF Technology and VirtualLogix all adding their endorsements just days prior to last week's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. The Symbian Foundation adds that it remains on track to begin operations before the end of the first half of 2009.

For more on the Nokia loan:
- read this release

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Open season for the Symbian Foundation
Symbian goes open-source