Motorola Inc is near a deal to sell its wireless-network equipment business to Nokia Siemens Networks for more than US$1.3 billion, a person familiar with the sale said.
The sale might be announced as early as yesterday, the person said on condition of anonymity because the had not yet been made public.
The final price is expected to be between US$1.3 billion and US$1.4 billion, the person said.
Jennifer Erickson, a spokeswoman for Motorola, declined to comment.
Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Finland’s Nokia Oyj and Munich-based Siemens AG, wants to boost its presence in North America to compete with larger rival Ericsson AB and faster-growing competitors such as China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為技術).
Nokia Siemens unsuccessfully bid twice for assets belonging to Toronto-based Nortel Networks Corp during the past year after the telecom-equipment maker filed for bankruptcy protection and sold off units.
Nokia Siemens has been cutting jobs and shutting offices to adjust to falling demand and price competition from Ericsson and Huawei.
Nokia Siemens chief executive officer Rajeev Suri said in November last year the company would expand through acquisitions and partnerships while trimming its existing operations.
A Nokia Siemens spokesman didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Telecom-equipment companies have over the past decade combined to cope with declines in spending by some customers. France’s Alcatel SA acquired Lucent Technologies Inc in 2006 to create Alcatel-Lucent, a Paris-based rival to Nokia Siemens. Since that deal closed, the stock has declined 52 percent.
Motorola is negotiating to sell the wireless-network unit as it prepares for a broader restructuring. The company is planning to spin off its mobile-phone and set-top box operations into a company that will be led by co-chief executive officer Sanjay Jha.
The spinoff is on track for the first quarter, Jha said last month.
Sales from the wireless networks business fell 7 percent to US$896 million last quarter from a year earlier, accounting for 18 percent of Motorola’s total revenue. The division’s operating profit climbed to US$112 million from US$62 million a year earlier, helped by contracts it won from companies, including China Mobile Communications Corp (中國移動).
If a wireless-network sale goes ahead, it would leave Greg Brown, the other co-CEO at the Schaumburg, Illinois-based company, responsible for just the enterprise mobility business that makes two-way radios and bar-code scanners.
Brown said in April that a sale of the networking business was possible.
“If there is an alternate equation or partnership that improves that trajectory even further than what we think, we’d consider it,” he said.
Nokia Siemens is being represented by Barclays Capital, while Motorola is being advised by Centerview Partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, according to people familiar with the discussions.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS