■ CELLPHONES
Nokia inks China contract
Nokia Oyj announced a deal yesterday to sell US$2 billion in handsets to China Postel this year, in the company's largest market. The world's No. 1 mobile phone maker said the deal includes the development of technological infrastructure and marketing with China Postel, with which it has worked since 1998. China Postel, a subsidiary of China P&T Appliances, has a market share of 30 percent in that country. Last year, Nokia sold more than 70 million mobile devices in China, an increase of 39 percent on 2006. Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, has sales in 130 countries. It employs some 130,000 people worldwide.
■ FINANCE
China opens equity markets
Foreign financial institutions will again be allowed to invest in China's equity markets after the government ended a year-long suspension aimed at cooling the market, state media reported yesterday. China's regulators have given the green light to an unnamed sovereign wealth fund to invest under China's especially designated foreign investor plan, the official Shanghai Securities News said. "To encourage qualified overseas funds to invest in China's capital market for the long term, a foreign government fund has recently been granted the QFII qualification," said Hu Xiaolian (胡曉煉), China's foreign exchange chief.
■ CELLPHONES
Motorola replaces officer
Motorola Inc, seeking to regain sales lost to rivals, announced the departure of chief marketing officer Casey Keller, less than 18 months after he took the job. Keller left on Feb. 29, spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said in an e-mail. Jeremy Dale and Eduardo Conrado will take over the job. Dale will manage handset marketing, while Conrado will focus on business customers. Chief executive officer Greg Brown has reshuffled the management team after Motorola's sales slid for four straight quarters and customers defected to Apple Inc and Nokia Oyj. Last month, Brown took direct charge of the phone division. He also named a new chief financial officer.
■ TELECOMS
Siemens to sell unit
German industrial group Siemens is in talks with several parties interested in buying its telecoms systems unit SEN, which faces a major restructuring, its chief executive said yesterday. "We want to sell SEN and are holding very advanced discussions with interested" parties, Peter Loescher said in an interview with Die Welt newspaper. Problems with SEN, Loescher said, "have been on the agenda at Siemens since mid-2006. It is time to clarify things, especially for the staff." SEN has lost more than US$1.5 billion in two years.
■ PATENTS
CeBIT stands raided
Scores of investigators raided 51 exhibitor stands at the CeBIT fair in Hannover, Germany, this week, looking for goods suspected of infringing patents, police said on Thursday. They carried off six cartons of documents and electronic goods including cellphones, navigation devices, digital picture frames and flat-screen monitors. Police said the reason for the extent of the raids was the high number of complaints from patent holders in the run up to the trade fair. Of the 51 companies raided, 24 were Chinese. Another 12 were Taiwanese companies and nine were German.
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