Basically, a joint venture is when two or more companies make an agreement to do business in one specific area. They can share the insurance, shipping and liability costs and produce higher profits. It is usually a short lived collaboration.
An acquisition is when one company is buying and taking over another. If it is friendly, often the seller can stipulate who keeps their job and so forth. If it is unfriendly, the company taking over gets to make all the final decisions. They cannot take away benefits already earned.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Difference_between_joint_ventures_and_mergers_acquisitions#ixzz1usNUs0ec

Sony Mobile Communications AB (formerly Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB) is amultinational mobile phone manufacturing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was founded on October 1, 2001 as a joint venture between Sony and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson.[1] Sony acquired Ericsson's share in the venture on February 16, 2012.[4]
Sony Mobile Communications has research and development facilities in Lund, Sweden; Tokyo, Japan; Beijing, China; and Silicon Valley, United States.[5] In 2009, it was the fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world (after Nokia, Samsung and LG).[6] By 2010, its market share had fallen to sixth place.
Ericsson, which had been in the mobile phone market for decades, and was the world's third largest cellular telephone handset maker, was struggling with huge losses. This was mainly due to this fire and its inability to produce cheaper phones like Nokia. To curtail the losses, it considered outsourcing production to Asian companies that could produce the handsets for lower costs.
Speculation began about a possible sale by Ericsson of its mobile phone division, but the company's president said it had no plans to do so. "Mobile phones are really a core business for Ericsson. We wouldn't be as successful (in networks) if we didn't have phones", he said.[citation needed]
Sony was a marginal player in the worldwide mobile phone market with a share of less than 1 percent in 2000. By August 2001, the two companies had finalised the terms of the merger announced in April. The company was to have an initial workforce of 3,500 employees.
[edit]2001 to 2010

Logo of Sony Ericsson

Annual net income or loss 2003 to 2009
Following the creation of the joint venture, Ericsson's market share actually fell, and in August 2002, Ericsson announced that it would cease making mobile phones and end its partnership with Sony if the business continued to disappoint.[citation needed] However, in January 2003, both companies said they would inject more money into the joint venture in a bid to stem the losses.
Sony Ericsson's strategy was to release new models capable of digital photography as well as other multimedia capabilities such as downloading and viewing video clips and personal information management capabilities. To this end, it released several new models which had built-in digital cameraand colour screen which were novelties at that time. The joint venture, however, continued to make bigger losses in spite of booming sales. The target date for making a profit from its first year to 2002 was postponed to 2003 to second half of 2003. It failed in its mission of becoming the top seller of multimedia handsets and was in fifth-place and struggling in 2005.
On March 1, 2005, Sony Ericsson introduced the K750iwith a 2 megapixel camera, as well as its platform mate, the W800i, the first of the Walkman phones capable of 30 hours of music playback, and two low-end phones.
In 2007 the company's first 5-Megapixel camera phone, the Sony Ericsson K850i, was announced followed in 2008 by the Sony Ericsson C905, the world's first 8-Megapixel phone.[citation needed] At Mobile World Congress 2009, Sony Ericsson unveiled the first 12-Megapixel phone, named Satio, on May 28, 2009.
On May 1, 2005, Sony Ericsson agreed to become the global title sponsor for the WTA Tour in a deal worth $88 million US dollars over 6 years. The women's pro tennis circuit was renamed the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Just over a month later on June 7, it announced sponsorship of West Indian batsmen Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan. In October 2005, Sony Ericsson presented the first mobile phone based on UIQ 3, the P990.
On January 2, 2007, Sony Ericsson announced in Stockholm that it would have some of its mobile phones made in India, and that its two outsourcing partners, Flextronics and Foxconn would manufacture ten million mobile phones per year by 2009. CEO Miles Flint announced at a press conference held with India's communications minister Dayanidhi Maran in Chennai that India was one of the fastest growing markets in the world and a priority market for Sony Ericsson with 105 million users of GSM mobile telephones.
Sony Ericsson struggled following the launch of Apple's iPhone in the third quarter of 2007. Its handset shipments fell from a high of 30.8m in Q4 2007 to only 8.1m in Q1 2011.[10] The company had made net losses in six of the 15 quarters and seen its cash reserves shrink from €2.2bn to €599m, after taking a €375m cash injection from its joint owners. The eclipse of the Symbian operating system, initially by Apple's iPhone, and then by Google's Android, has affected Sony Ericsson's position in the market.
Sony Ericsson was overtaken by its South Korean rival LG Electronics in Q1 2008. Sony Ericsson's company's profits fell significantly by 43% to €133 million (approx. US$180 million), sales falling by 8% and market share falling from 9.4% to 7.9%, despite favourable conditions that the handset market was expected to grow by 10% in 2008. Sony Ericsson announced another profit warning in June 2008[11] and saw net profit crash by 97% in Q2 2008, announcing that it would cut 2,000 jobs, leading to wide fear that Sony Ericsson is on the verge of decline along with its struggling rival, Motorola.[12] In Q3 the profits were much on the same level, however November and December saw increased profits along with new models being released such as the C905 being one of the top sellers across the United Kingdom.
In June 2008, Sony Ericsson had about 8,200 employees, it then launched a cost-cutting program and by the end of 2009 it had slashed its global workforce by around 5,000 people. It planned to cut another 1,500 jobs in 2010. It has also closed R&D centres in Chadwick House, Birchwood (Warrington) in the UK; Miami, Seattle, San Diego and RTP (Raleigh, NC) in the USA; The Chennai Unit (Tamil Nadu) in India; Hässleholm and Kista in Sweden and operations in the Netherlands. The UIQ centres in London and Budapest were also closed, UIQ was a joint venture with Motorola which began life in the 1990s.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
[edit]2010 to present
On October 27, 2011, Sony announced that it would acquire Ericsson's stake in Sony Ericsson for €1.05 billion ($1.47 billion), making the mobile handset business a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony. The transaction's completion was expected to occur in January 2012.[24][25][26] At their keynote at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony's Kaz Hirai announced that Sony Ericsson would be known simply as Sony Mobile Communications pending completion of the transaction. On January 26, 2012, The European Union approved the buyout.[27] On February 16, 2012, Sony announced it had completed the full acquisition of Sony Ericsson.[28] The first Sony only mobile is the Sony Xperia S launched at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.
-------------------------------------------------
[edit]Operations
In 2009 Sony Ericsson announced that it was moving its North American headquarters from Research riangle Park, North Carolina to Atlanta. The headquarters move was part of a plan to reduce its workforce, then 10,000 employees, by 20%. As of that year Sony Ericsson had 425 employees in Research Triangle Park; the staff had been reduced by hundreds due to layoffs.[29] Stacy Doster, a spokesperson of Sony Ericsson, said that the proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's flights to Latin America and the operations of AT&T Mobility influenced the decision to move the USA headquarters. Sony Ericsson will close the Research Triangle site.[29][30]
-------------------------------------------------
Sales and market share
Sony Ericsson posted its first profit in the second half of 2003. Since then, the sales figures from phones have been:

Annual shipments of units 2003 to 2009 Calendar year | Unit sales (millions) | 2004 | 42[34] | 2005 | 50[35] | 2006 | 74.8[36] | 2007 | 103.4[37] | 2008 | 96.6[38] | 2009 | 57.1[39] | 2010 | 43.1 | 2011 | 34.4 |
In the third-quarter of 2009, Sony Ericsson had a 4.9% global market share in mobile phone handsets, the fourth-largest after Nokia (37.8%), Samsung (21%) and LG (11%).
Reuters) - Sony Corp is to take over its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson for 1.05 billion euros ($1.5 billion), as it seeks to exploit its music and video to help it catch smartphone leaders such as Apple Inc.

The deal to buy out its Swedish partner will enable Sony to better integrate smartphones and other devices with its array of content, from its music label whose stars include Beyonce and Britney Spears, its movie studio whose current hits include Spider Man and Anonymous and its Playstation video games such as Legends of Norrah.

"Its the beginning of something which I think is quite magical," Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer told a news conference in London. "We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment".

Until now Sony's tablets, games and other consumer electronics devices have been kept separate from the phones sold and created by Sony Ericsson.

"Sony is looking to do the same as Apple and meet users' demands through linking various devices with similar interfaces and operating systems," said analyst Nobuo Kurahashi of Mizuho Investors' Securities in Tokyo.

"Smartphones look to become more important products for Sony ... and they will probably become the main device people use to connect to the Internet."

Smartphone sales have been surging since Apple launched its first iPhone in 2007 and despite a slowdown in the overall consumer electronics market, strong demand is set to continue.

"More and more people are watching content on smartphones. TV is not going to go away, but they watch it on smartphones and they watch it on tablets," Stringer said.

STRUGGLES AHEAD

The deal will give Sony ownership of certain handset patents held by Ericsson and will enable it to cut costs in the Sony Ericsson business, with Stringer pointing to savings in operations, R&D and marketing.

The takeover of Sony Ericsson by the Japanese group had long been talked of and a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters this month a deal was in the offing.

"Sony now has all the components to compete with Samsung and Apple. The big question now is ... can it execute?," said Pete Cunningham of consultancy Canalys, adding Japanese company takeovers in Europe and the United States had often struggled.

"Based on history I am sceptical, but I would not say it cannot be done," he added.

Founded in 2001, Sony Ericsson employs some 7,500 and last year took around 2 percent of the global cellphone market with sales of 6.3 billion euros. Initially it thrived with an array of camera and music phones but it lost out in the smartphone race.

"Sony had to make this deal as it had run out of options, but integration challenges could prove to be a major hurdle," said Ben Wood, head of research at consultancy CCS Insight.

"As a major consumer electronics player, lack of mobile assets had become a liability for Sony, particularly when compared with Samsung, whose telecommunication business creates nearly half of its profits," he said.

Ericsson said the deal provides Sony with a broad intellectual property cross-licensing agreement covering all the Japanese company's products and services, as well as ownership of five essential patent families relating to wireless handset technology.

Shares in Ericsson, which as a result of the deal increases its focus on the wireless network business in which it is the world's largest manufacturer, were up 5 percent at 70 crowns by 1153 GMT. The STOXX Europe 600 technology index was up 3.4 percent.

Ericsson Chief Executive Hans Vestberg told Reuters the company would use the cash payment to strengthen its balance sheet and had no plans to pay it out to shareholders. ($1=0.724 euros)

(Additional reporting by Veronica Ek, Olaf Swahnberg and Patrick Lannin in Stockholm, with James Topham in Tokyo; Editing by Greg Mahlich and David Holmes)

Type | Aktiebolag | Industry | Telecommunications | Founded | October 1, 2001[1] (as Sony Ericsson)
February 16, 2012 (as Sony Mobile) | Headquarters | Hammersmith, London,United Kingdom | Area served | Worldwide | Key people | Kunimasa Suzuki
(President and CEO)
Bob Ishida
(EVP and Deputy CEO) | Products | Mobile phones
Mobile music devices
Wireless systems
Wireless voice devices | Revenue | €5.212 billion (2011)[2] | Operating income | € −206 million (2011) | Profit | € −247 million (2011) | Employees | 7,500 (as of December 2010)[3] | Parent | Sony Corporation | Website | www.sonymobile.com |

2001 to 2010

Logo of Sony Ericsson

Annual net income or loss 2003 to 2009
Following the creation of the joint venture, Ericsson's market share actually fell, and in August 2002, Ericsson announced that it would cease making mobile phones and end its partnership with Sony if the business continued to disappoint.[citation needed] However, in January 2003, both companies said they would inject more money into the joint venture in a bid to stem the losses.
Sony Ericsson's strategy was to release new models capable of digital photography as well as other multimedia capabilities such as downloading and viewing video clips and personal information management capabilities. To this end, it released several new models which had built-in digital cameraand colour screen which were novelties at that time. The joint venture, however, continued to make bigger losses in spite of booming sales. The target date for making a profit from its first year to 2002 was postponed to 2003 to second half of 2003. It failed in its mission of becoming the top seller of multimedia handsets and was in fifth-place and struggling in 2005.
On March 1, 2005, Sony Ericsson introduced the K750iwith a 2 megapixel camera, as well as its platform mate, the W800i, the first of the Walkman phones capable of 30 hours of music playback, and two low-end phones.
In 2007 the company's first 5-Megapixel camera phone, the Sony Ericsson K850i, was announced followed in 2008 by the Sony Ericsson C905, the world's first 8-Megapixel phone.[citation needed] At Mobile World Congress 2009, Sony Ericsson unveiled the first 12-Megapixel phone, named Satio, on May 28, 2009.
On May 1, 2005, Sony Ericsson agreed to become the global title sponsor for the WTA Tour in a deal worth $88 million US dollars over 6 years. The women's pro tennis circuit was renamed the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Just over a month later on June 7, it announced sponsorship of West Indian batsmen Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan. In October 2005, Sony Ericsson presented the first mobile phone based on UIQ 3, the P990.
On January 2, 2007, Sony Ericsson announced in Stockholm that it would have some of its mobile phones made in India, and that its two outsourcing partners, Flextronics and Foxconn would manufacture ten million mobile phones per year by 2009. CEO Miles Flint announced at a press conference held with India's communications minister Dayanidhi Maran in Chennai that India was one of the fastest growing markets in the world and a priority market for Sony Ericsson with 105 million users of GSM mobile telephones.
Sony Ericsson struggled following the launch of Apple's iPhone in the third quarter of 2007. Its handset shipments fell from a high of 30.8m in Q4 2007 to only 8.1m in Q1 2011.[10] The company had made net losses in six of the 15 quarters and seen its cash reserves shrink from €2.2bn to €599m, after taking a €375m cash injection from its joint owners. The eclipse of the Symbian operating system, initially by Apple's iPhone, and then by Google's Android, has affected Sony Ericsson's position in the market.
Sony Ericsson was overtaken by its South Korean rival LG Electronics in Q1 2008. Sony Ericsson's company's profits fell significantly by 43% to €133 million (approx. US$180 million), sales falling by 8% and market share falling from 9.4% to 7.9%, despite favourable conditions that the handset market was expected to grow by 10% in 2008. Sony Ericsson announced another profit warning in June 2008[11] and saw net profit crash by 97% in Q2 2008, announcing that it would cut 2,000 jobs, leading to wide fear that Sony Ericsson is on the verge of decline along with its struggling rival, Motorola.[12] In Q3 the profits were much on the same level, however November and December saw increased profits along with new models being released such as the C905 being one of the top sellers across the United Kingdom.
In June 2008, Sony Ericsson had about 8,200 employees, it then launched a cost-cutting program and by the end of 2009 it had slashed its global workforce by around 5,000 people. It planned to cut another 1,500 jobs in 2010. It has also closed R&D centres in Chadwick House, Birchwood (Warrington) in the UK; Miami, Seattle, San Diego and RTP (Raleigh, NC) in the USA; The Chennai Unit (Tamil Nadu) in India; Hässleholm and Kista in Sweden and operations in the Netherlands. The UIQ centres in London and Budapest were also closed, UIQ was a joint venture with Motorola which began life in the 1990s.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
[edit]2010 to present
On October 27, 2011, Sony announced that it would acquire Ericsson's stake in Sony Ericsson for €1.05 billion ($1.47 billion), making the mobile handset business a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony. The transaction's completion was expected to occur in January 2012.[24][25][26] At their keynote at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony's Kaz Hirai announced that Sony Ericsson would be known simply as Sony Mobile Communications pending completion of the transaction. On January 26, 2012, The European Union approved the buyout.[27] On February 16, 2012, Sony announced it had completed the full acquisition of Sony Ericsson.[28] The first Sony only mobile is the Sony Xperia S launched at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

all by internet