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Motorola offloads wireless networking unit to Nokia

The company is showing signs of breakup, after selling its wireless networking unit to Nokia Siemens for $1.2bn
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Motorola on Monday unloaded its wireless networking unit to Nokia Siemens Networks for $1.2bn, making another step towards its breakup.

For Nokia Siemens, the purchase of most of Motorola's wireless network infrastructure assets gives the company a better footprint in the US, specifically CDMA technology and WiMax. Nokia Siemens gets access to more than 50 operators and some new sales ground to till. Motorola counted Clearwire, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone as customers. With Motorola's wireless assets, Nokia Siemens will be number three in the US, number one in Japan and number two globally.

The deal will close by the end of the year and Nokia Siemens will take on the 7,500 employees in Motorola's wireless unit. Motorola's wireless unit had a revenue run rate of about $4bn (£2.6bn). Motorola announced in February it would split into two separate companies in the first quarter of 2011.

For more on this story, see Motorola's breakup in sight: Nokia Siemens buys wireless networking unit on ZDNet.com.

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