Russian telecom provider wants majority stake in Sailfish developer Jolla

Russian telecom provider Rostelecom has filed an application to buy a majority-owned company in Jolla, the Finnish developer of the Sailfish operating system. Jolla is now also in Russian hands.

The Russian Votron currently has a majority stake in Jolla and Rostelecom wants to buy Votron. In addition, it concerns the purchase of Open Mobile Platform, a company that develops Sailfish OS Rus, a variant of Sailfish OS for the Russian market, RBC reports.

Market regulator FAS confirms to RBC that Rostelecom made the application last Friday. A decision can take up to three months. It is unknown what Rostelecom wants with the companies and indirectly with Sailfish OS.

The Finnish Jolla made Sailfish OS as a further development of Nokia’s MeeGo platform. The first Jolla phone with Sailfish OS came out in 2013. Besides Russia, China is also adapting Sailfish OS for use by officials. Both countries see the operating system as an alternative to iOS and Android, which is owned by Apple and Google. Those are both American companies.