Nokia Siemens has said this week it will purchase Motorola’s wireless-network equipment division for $1.2 billion in cash.
The company is a joint telecommunications venture between Nokia and Siemens and the division being purchased supplies carriers with equipment needed to build LTE, WiMax and 3G infrastructure.
Nokia says the acquisition will help it improve its position in the United States and Japan, two nations where sales have been low and brand recognition is low as well.
“First and foremost, this deal is about customers,” says Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens. “We expect to gain an incumbent position with many new customers and strengthen our position with others.”
With the acquisition, Suri says Nokia will establish new relationships with China Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Clearwire.
The deal will close by the end of the year, and Nokia will bring on 7500 Motorola employees.
Result for: china mobile
RIM, maker of the BlackBerry smartphones, has announced a distribution deal in China, one that should help the company expand its phones into the world’s most populated nation.
The deal, with technology company Digital China, will “help RIM further expand its business in China” while giving them access to a large national distribution network.
RIM has made BlackBerry smartphones available in China since 2006 through China Mobile but sales have been extremely light, and marketing has been even lighter.
“Digital China’s extensive knowledge and market presence will further expand the opportunity for RIM in China,” said RIM CEO Jim Balsillie.
Result for: china mobile
At the Mobile Asia Congress event this week, China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou said his company is still in talks with Apple over bringing the iPhone smartphone to the nation, despite Apple’s recent deal with China Unicom.
“China Mobile has continued negotiations with Apple to introduce the iPhone on China Mobile’s network,” he added. The China Unicom deal is non-exclusive.
The talks, which began in 2007 with the original iPhone model, are still held up by a few snags, likely feature-set and pricing. However, “we really are still in talks with Apple. In our negotiations in the past, we insisted on sticking to our conditions. We are still very sincere about completing this negotiation.”
The Wi-Fi-crippled and overpriced version available from Unicom has seen underwhelming sales, with some reports placing sales at just 5000 in the first week. In comparison, the iPhone 3GS sold 1 million units in its first weekend in the US.
