Three firms join forces under Symbio name

---

By Mary Duan
Friday, October 2, 2009

SAN JOSE — The merger of two Scandinavian technology companies with a Beijing-based company will mean more jobs for Silicon Valley, as the headquarters for the newly formed business plants itself in the Bay Area.

“San Jose will be the hub for all of our senior executives and U.S. projects,” said Jake Hsu, CEO of the newly formed Symbio.

Hsu was also CEO of Beijing-based Symbio Group, an outsourced product development provider that is merging with Flander, a mobile and embedded software development company, and Ardites, an expert in user experience technologies.

Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed, but Hsu described the all-stock transaction as a “merger among equals” despite retaining him as CEO and using a variation on the Symbio name. The new company is being described as one of the five largest in the $3 billion outsourced product development space.