Nokia Siemens Networks plans to acquire the majority of Motorola's wireless-network infrastructure assets for about $1.2 billion in cash, a deal that comes as Motorola has been preparing to split the rest of its businesses into two entities in 2011.
Motorola anticipates splitting up by the first quarter of 2011, with one company encompassing the recently formed Mobile Devices and Home merging handsets and the cable-oriented Home business. The other will comprise Motorola's enterprise, government and public safety business units, while the wireless infrastructure unit becomes part of Nokia Siemens.
Motorola's wireless networking infrastructure business provides products and services for wireless carriers and spans technologies including GSM, CDMA, WiMax and LTE. As part of the deal, Nokia Siemens Networks expects to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators including Clearwire, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.
The companies expect to close the deal by the end of 2010.
Approximately 7,500 Motorola employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks when the transaction closes, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India. Under the terms of the transaction, Motorola will retain the iDEN business, a mobile telecommunications technology it developed, as well as substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business and other selected assets.
In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola said they also are exploring a global relationship in the public safety market, which would combine Motorola's solutions for public-safety organizations with Nokia Siemens Networks' commercial LTE solutions.
Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Finland's Nokia and Germany's Siemens, has about 60,000 employees worldwide.
