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Nokia Siemens To Buy Motorola Unit For $1.2B

Posted by Soulskill on from the chew-before-you-swallow dept.

sylverboss writes with news that Nokia Siemens is buying Motorola's wireless networks division for $1.2 billion. "The deal gives Nokia — the world's leading supplier of mobile handsets — an invigorated entrance to the US market where it has lagged far behind other handset suppliers." According to BusinessWeek, "Motorola’s sale of the wireless-network unit prepares it 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 schedule for the first quarter, Jha said last month."

70 comments

  1. Damn, Apple should've nabbed them. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's too bad that Apple didn't snag them first. Maybe then iPhones would actually be able to make phone calls.

    1. Re:Damn, Apple should've nabbed them. by BobZee1 · · Score: 1, Troll

      does nokia use/license the efuse from IBM?

      --
      dumber people are doing harder things everyday
    2. Re:Damn, Apple should've nabbed them. by steelkatana · · Score: 1

      now that's FUNNY .... i dont care who you are..... iPhones (and ATT) keeping calls up on the net. that's crazy talk.

    3. Re:Damn, Apple should've nabbed them. by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 1

      It's too bad that Apple didn't snag them first. Maybe then iPhones would actually be able to make phone calls.

      It's too bad that Apple didn't snag them first. Maybe then iPhones would actually be able to make phone calls.

      Too bad for Motorola that they didn't rise to the challenge when Apple partnered up with them to integrate iTunes with mobile phones. They got handed a golden ticket and produced a turd like the "ROKR."

      --
      If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
    4. Re:Damn, Apple should've nabbed them. by bdenton42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not like Motorola had a chance. Apple restricted them to storing only 100 songs (50 overseas) to prevent it from competing with iPods. It wouldn't surprise me if the whole purpose of ROKR from Apples point of view was simply to get access to telephony IP for eventual use in iPhone.

  2. Apple confirms it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nokia is dying. Less space than a Nomad, no iPod interface, unable to end calls with a simple touch of one finger to one corner of the phone, lame.

    1. Re:Apple confirms it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apply is dying, unable to make calls with a simple touch of one finger to one corner of the phone, lame.

  3. Network infrastructure, not handsets by Tancred · · Score: 5, Informative

    Note that this has nothing to do with either Nokia or Motorola phones themselves, but the network infrastructure business. There are a lot of pieces between the handsets such as antennas, switches, media gateways, routers, etc. That's the part that's being acquired by Nokia Siemens Networks (not Nokia proper, the handset manufacturer).

    1. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by DWMorse · · Score: 1

      Thank you for clarifying. It's a shame nobody will know this until they come across your comment. Here come the Apple-lol-ments.

      --
      There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
    2. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Good, they've been neglecting that business. I spent twenty minutes a few weeks ago trying to figure out their 900MHz canopy gear worked, or was even available, and failed pretty miserably.

      Let's see, they're selling networking, spun off Freescale, are spinning off the handsets and set-tops. So they'll be a 2-way radio and checkout counter gear company by this time next year?

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    3. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by mirix · · Score: 1

      They spun off "On" semiconductor around (or at?) the time of Freescale too. Onsemi was the dumber glue logic and random analog ICs, discrete silicon components, etc, business.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    4. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by mirix · · Score: 1

      Rather, On semi *is* the dumber silicon business. It used to just be part of Motorola proper, like the (now Freescale) MPU/CPU business was.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    5. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Five years ago it was just Nokia, until they spun off the networking division. Not sure what the relationship between the two is now, or whether Nokia research division was split too. Being married to a similar Siemens division though always seemed strange to me.

    6. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Essentially at start this seemed brilliant - Nokia's cellular networking + Siemens' more of the same. Standard fusion, same amount of function but less people due to axing redundancies (this is the company that makes cellular towers and such, typically entire networking solutions that it sells to operators as a package).

      Problem was, Siemens' part of the deal was poisonous. Almost instantly after the merger, it came out that Siemens bosses had taken part in some nasty bribery in the recent past before the merger, and the new fused company was forced to take the blame for the entire thing. They lost quite a lot of reputation, had to pay fines, and cut people even more then expected.
      They seem to have recovered now though, and have a very solid part of infrastructure market now. Iirc their main competitors were motorola's networking division and sony eriksson's networking division, one of which they're now buying, in addition to many smaller makers (and I think I'm missing at least one major asian one whos name eludes me).

      It's worth noting that htc, apple, rim, et al and in fact most mobile phone makers have no part in this particular business - this is strictly network-side stuff.

    7. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by adolf · · Score: 1

      I feel for you. I've spent weeks trying to sort out things with Canopy orders. I think the worst one was waiting something like 4 weeks for them to email us some firmware and FPGA upgrades that we had already paid thousands of dollars for.

      Where I work, we deal pretty closely on with Motorola on the land-mobile radio side of things, and for that, they do a great job.

      Canopy, however, has always felt like a third-party product. I just haven't yet figured out who the third party is.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    8. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by martyb · · Score: 1

      Note that this has nothing to do with either Nokia or Motorola phones themselves, but the network infrastructure business. There are a lot of pieces between the handsets such as antennas, switches, media gateways, routers, etc. That's the part that's being acquired by Nokia Siemens Networks (not Nokia proper, the handset manufacturer).

      Oh! I just RTFA and was confused when I came to this:

      The joint venture of Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG will gain or expand access to more than 50 customers, it said in a statement today. (Emphasis added)

      Now I understand... But that works out to... $24,000,000 per customer. Now I don't understand! ;)

    9. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by flosofl · · Score: 2, Informative

      So they'll be a 2-way radio and checkout counter gear company by this time next year?

      And enterprise WiFi and Wireless IPS/IDS devices. Oh, and managed services for the WiFi and IPS/IDS. Basically, anything that was in the Enterprise Mobility Solutions (the *only* profitable division by a long, long shot).

      Basically:
      Networking (LTE, GSM, iDEN, etc...) sold to Nokia Siemens
      Mobility (phones and consumer products) spun off into Motorola Mobility
      EMS (public safety, Symbol products, AireDefense, RFS switches, etc...) re-branded as Motorola Solutions

      --
      "This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
    10. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Rudolf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Networking (LTE, GSM, iDEN, etc...) sold to Nokia Siemens
      No, Moto is keeping iDEN. Nokia doesn't want it.

      From the article:
      "NSN declined to pick up Motorola's aging iDEN technology..."

    11. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 1

      you're missing at least Huawei on the asian side. Also, I wouldn't call Ericsson (the current market leader) a division of Sony Ericsson, it's actually the other way around, the latter is a joint venture between Sony and Ericsson.

    12. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Indeed. And the last big player is french Alcatel.

    13. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      It's a serious mistake to couple 'dumb' with discrete semiconductors in any fashion. High speed is ALWAYS about analog, and about high quality discrete semiconductors. Motorola's RF component lineup has always been top notch. They sort of ran things in many segments of that biz for a long long time.

    14. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by stupid_is · · Score: 1

      You mean the merged entity Alcatel-Lucent (although probably controlled by the french)

      --
      -- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
    15. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by stupid_is · · Score: 2, Informative

      A customer in this context is a network operator - like Verizon. There are a few biggies that Motorola has (Verizon - CDMA, CMCC - GSM, Zain - GSM) and there are lots of small ones. The small ones will spend a few mill on network equipment, the biggies will spend a few hundred mill

      --
      -- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
    16. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by mirix · · Score: 1

      By dumb I meant the logic ICs they make. RF stuff fits under "random analog" and "discrete silicon" ;-)

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    17. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by mcvos · · Score: 1

      So no chance that Nokia will open up the bootloader of my Milestone?

    18. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by warGod3 · · Score: 1

      "On" spun off from Moto in 1999. "Freescale" was done in 2004.

      --
      "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
    19. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by ishobo · · Score: 1

      Stop confusing Nokia and Nokia Siemens, they are separate companies.

      --
      Slashdot - The great and glorious cluster fuck of Internet wisdom.
    20. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by kalpaha · · Score: 1

      I guess $24,000,000 is peanuts compared to the likes of the $7 billion deal NSN made with Harbinger Capital Partners to build Light Squared: http://www.intomobile.com/2010/07/20/lightsquared/

    21. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by Creepy · · Score: 1

      Um, not correct - Nokia Siemens was not implicated or involved - yes that joint venture was announced before the Siemens scandal, but the company itself is a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens and run as a separate company (with Nokia and Siemens each having a 50% stake in it) and wasn't fully founded until after the scandal. Nokia Siemens is most notorious for supplying deep packet inspection software to Iran.

      Siemens itself was fined heavily for bribery, and much of the bribery was in telecom, but it all pre-dates the joint venture (most of the charges were between 2002 and 2006). The real problem in Siemens was because corruption like bribery was an acceptable practice to ensure contracts in Germany, and even tax deductible until 1999 (Germans call it nutzliche Aufwendungen, which literally means "useful expenses"), and Siemens executives and accountants never stopped doing the practice after the practice was banned. The practice was actually run pretty much exactly like the third party loophole for Payola in the United States, where an outside contractor was hired to pay to bribe the customer and recommend the deal (in Payola an outside contractor was hired to bribe the radio stations to play a song).

    22. Re:Network infrastructure, not handsets by martyb · · Score: 1

      A customer in this context is a network operator - like Verizon. There are a few biggies that Motorola has (Verizon - CDMA, CMCC - GSM, Zain - GSM) and there are lots of small ones. The small ones will spend a few mill on network equipment, the biggies will spend a few hundred mill

      Duh! Don't know how I didn't realize that when I posted; thanks for your kind reply!

  4. Hold on. by ceraphis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wait just a minute. Nokia is buying Motorola's wireless division? As in, they get control of all the droid handsets everyone's making a fuss about right now? Does Motorola still make the Razrs or some newer "best of class" feature phone like I think everyone raved about back in the day? Maybe I am just terribly bad about the sense of scale but 1.2 billion almost seems too low.

    I wonder if Nokia is going to slowly work them into the symbian fold...after they make all their droid handsets self destruct?

    1. Re:Hold on. by Kizeh · · Score: 1

      No. The posting is totally misleading. Nokia Siemens Networks, which makes base stations and such wireless infrastructure is buying the infrastructure part of Motorola. Nokia, the handset maker, is not buying Motorola, the handset maker.

    2. Re:Hold on. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      This is more about routers, gateways, and switches. And not the consumer kind you can buy at BestBuy. The industrial kind where one can take up a small closet.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    3. Re:Hold on. by ceraphis · · Score: 1

      Gotcha. Thanks for the clarifications, guys.

  5. Engineola by hhedeshian · · Score: 1

    [Motorola] is an American, multinational, Fortune 100,[5] telecommunications company

    -- wikipedia

    Being too young to know the 1950~1980 Motorola, to me the name "Motorola" is synonymous with Freescale and On-Semi. I just can't see them as a tech company, just a sore looser following in 's wake.

    1. Re:Engineola by hhedeshian · · Score: 1

      just a sore looser following in [insert successful handset mfg here]'s wake.

      Fixed

    2. Re:Engineola by rubato · · Score: 3, Funny
      > just a sore loser following in [insert successful handset mfg here]'s wake.

      Now it's fixed.

    3. Re:Engineola by mirix · · Score: 1

      I've got Motorola branded vacuum tubes sitting in my basement.

      In the old days they made a lot random radio related equipment, primarily mobile equipment. "made in murrica" no less. Although I think they sold all that off in the 70's.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    4. Re:Engineola by drjzzz · · Score: 1

      A Motorola TV is in my basement. It is big (for the time... 15"?), beautiful (clean lines, proto-Ives), vacuum tubes throughout (of course). Cannot throw it away but cannot figure out what to actually do with it!

      --
      to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...
  6. Motorola keeps all their phones by Tancred · · Score: 4, Informative

    This deal is only about network infrastructure, not handsets.

    1. Re:Motorola keeps all their phones by Nethead · · Score: 1

      http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/Service+Provider

      also google "Motorola ASN" and "Motorola CAPC"

      --
      -- I have a private email server in my basement.
  7. Just another stage.... by russotto · · Score: 1

    ...in the long and drawn-out collapse of a once great semiconductor company.

    1. Re:Just another stage.... by MrEricSir · · Score: 1

      Hey, Motorola was around long before semiconductors.

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    2. Re:Just another stage.... by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      At the start of the company, the "Motorola" was actually a vacuum tube car radio.

    3. Re:Just another stage.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you! Now the name finally makes sense.

  8. Bad summary by hemanthm · · Score: 1

    How does Nokia-Siemens buying Motorola's network infrastructure division give Nokia's handset division "an invigorated entrance to the US market"?

  9. Must regret underbidding on Nortel CDMA. by guidryp · · Score: 2, Informative

    NSN were the stalking horse on Nortel CDMA/LTE infrastructure bidding, that Ericsson won for just over a billion.

    Nortel had a larger CDMA (major piece NSN is missing) market share than Motorola, so now it looks like they paid more for less.

    1. Re:Must regret underbidding on Nortel CDMA. by Mariognarly · · Score: 1

      I agree. It's too bad, but glad to see they at least got something. We use both NSN and Nortel switches for our network infrastructure. Be interesting to hear NSN's take on the bidding process. I'm gonna bet their available cash flow kept them out of the Nortel bid, and they only secured enough now. That and I wouldn't have predicted Ericsson to go as high as they did.

  10. It's not just the summary by jfoobaz · · Score: 1

    This is a separate division from the handset manufacturing, and it's not clear why it'd have any impact on US sales of Nokia phones.

    The bit about the "an invigorated entrance to the US market" is taken directly from the lede of the article, which overall seems to avoid mention of the handset market (apart from discussion of Motorola's iDEN holdings). Maybe some clueless editor at Information Week stuck it in to spice things up.

    1. Re:It's not just the summary by ishobo · · Score: 1

      It is a separate private corporation not a division. Both Siemans and Nokia own equal shares in Nokia Siemens Networks.

      --
      Slashdot - The great and glorious cluster fuck of Internet wisdom.
    2. Re:It's not just the summary by Creepy · · Score: 1

      The reason it impacts US marketshare is because Nokia's market share in the US is significantly less than Motorola's - I think Nokia is around 8% and Motorola 20%, so basically they jump from 8% marketshare to 28% marketshare. Nokia does much better in Europe and Asia where phone service is not bundled with the phones.

    3. Re:It's not just the summary by jfoobaz · · Score: 1

      The reason it impacts US marketshare is because Nokia's market share in the US is significantly less than Motorola's - I think Nokia is around 8% and Motorola 20%, so basically they jump from 8% marketshare to 28% marketshare. Nokia does much better in Europe and Asia where phone service is not bundled with the phones.

      This would be a good point, except that this deal has nothing at all to do with Nokia's handset business - this deal is the purchase of Motorola's wireless infrastructure business, not their end user wireless device manufacturing. Further, this company is a joint venture (as another poster points out) between Nokia and Siemens, not Nokia proper.

  11. Nokia must be weeping by mangu · · Score: 1

    What, no more worlds to conquer?

  12. Something's wrong by bobwrit · · Score: 2, Informative

    (another article on the sale/breakup: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g3CNyGettVebplcruc9y1CPA9amwD9H2CL2G0) So, Motorola had to break up due to losses. Yeah, there is probably accounting fee's and the cost of the infrastructure that they sold off, but, they should have enough profit to counter those looses from their phone mfg dept. I mean, look at the phones that they've released recently, Droid and Droid X specifically. The profits should off set, unless they didn't maintain their infrastructure correctly(what I suspect happened). Have fun with with poor hardware, Nokia...

    --
    -- (this is a sig) My Computer Programming Forumhttp://www.programers.co.nr/
    1. Re:Something's wrong by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      It's quite possible that this isn't as much about hardware as about buying out a major competitor, taking their contacts and deals and dumping the IP and hardware to anyone interested, or just keeping it, seeing what they can integrate into their tech and tossing out the rest.

  13. that was FUNNY! by Gary+W.+Longsine · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mods, mods, mods. No sense of humor?

    --
    If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
  14. In related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I'm about to buy a bag of weed for $10.

    1. Re:In related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your obviously not buying the good shit.

    2. Re:In related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or he lives in the Netherlands.

  15. Doesn't leave Motorola with much by Animats · · Score: 1

    Here's Motorola's remaining product line. Bar code equipment. Some RFID gear. Two-way radios for cops, taxis, and such. A few specialized mobile computers. Some cable TV gear.

    That's a huge comedown for what was once a company competitive with Intel in microprocessors.

    1. Re:Doesn't leave Motorola with much by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      First, it isn't even all of Motorola.

      Second, what I consider the 'good stuff' from Motorola continues on at Freescale and ON-Semi.

      A lot of companies are competitive, and indeed surpass, Intel in microprocessors. There are so many other segments of the microprocessor biz than 'that big main chip in my PeeCee.' There are a hell of a lot more Freescale parts speced into the automotive market than Intel parts. Does Intel make any processors at all for that market segment?

    2. Re:Doesn't leave Motorola with much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Surpass in which metrics? Amount of sand melted?

    3. Re:Doesn't leave Motorola with much by Wald76 · · Score: 1

      You're only looking at the *second* of three tabs on this web page.

  16. Misleading article headline by Rexdude · · Score: 1

    Acquisition of Motorola's mobile network infrastructure business gives Nokia an entry to the U.S. market, where it has long struggled.

    What's the connection between one network infrastructure company (Nokia Siemens Networks) buying out Motorola's network infrastructure unit and Nokia (the handset manufacturer)'s woes in the US market? NSN is a different company altogether, and this deal gives it some leverage in the network equipment space, deals with US mobile operators and Motorola's related IP. The Nokia name is the only similarity here and it's not going to affect the poor US market/mindshare for Nokia handsets.

    --
    "..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
  17. I think it is just one mod. by Ecuador · · Score: 3, Funny

    CmdrTaco doesn't think it's funny...

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  18. The title! Network infrastructure, not handsets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The clients of NSN and other similar companies in this market are all GSM providers, so for example AT&T in USA is one such a customer. I hope that now you understand why it is such an amount of money...

  19. The best Nokia could do by laafonline · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The best Nokia could do. They are losing marketvalue

  20. Really? by FakeStreet123 · · Score: 1

    Then Nokia Jizzed. That's it folks