Motorola Inc., the U.S. wireless services and chip equipment maker, has agreed to sells its losing wireless network business to Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Finland’s Nokia and Germany’s Siemens AG, which makes wireless basestations, infrastructure, and equipment.
The deal is valued around $1.2 billion and will help Nokia-Siemens obtain market share in North America and Asia. The companies expect the deal to close by year-end. Motorola is in the midst of a broad restructuring that seeks to spin off its mobile phone operations into a new company sometime early in 2011, the company said last month.
“Nokia Siemens Networks will see the benefits of a deal that is expected to enhance profitability, and cash flow, and to have significant upside potential,” said Nokia-Siemens CEO Rajeev Suri in a statement.
