June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, offered to buy the 52 percent of Symbian Ltd. that it doesn't own for about 264 million euros ($410 million) to gain control in the maker of operating systems for handsets.

Nokia will pay 3.647 euros a share for closely held Symbian, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said today in an e-mailed statement. It currently holds a 47.9 percent stake.

Symbian, based in London, is the world's biggest maker of operating systems for advanced mobile phones. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, the mobile-phone joint venture of Ericsson AB and Sony Corp., has 13.1 percent of Symbian, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s Panasonic holds 10.5 percent, Siemens AG 8.4 percent and Samsung Electronics Co. has 4.5 percent.

Symbian faces competition from Microsoft Corp., Research In Motion Ltd. and Apple Inc. in sales of operating systems for advanced wireless devices such as handheld computers and so- called smartphones, which allow users to access wireless Internet, check e-mail, play music and transmit video clips. Symbian's system was installed on about 7 percent of all mobile phones sold at the end of last year.

Symbian's shipment growth slowed to 17 percent in the first quarter from 53 percent in the fourth quarter. In April, Nokia said the total market for so-called converged devices in the first quarter rose 42 percent to 33.3 million units, while the company's market share fell to 44 percent from 50 percent in that segment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Juho Erkheikki in Helsinki at jerkheikki@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 24, 2008 02:14 EDT