Wither Coms ???
>> Siemens Wants To Break Up Telecoms Unit [Report]
Reuters
February 15, 2006
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Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE) wants to break up its telecoms equipment unit Com and either sell parts of it or put them into partnerships, Germany's Manager Magazin said on Wednesday.
The chief executive of Com, which made an operating loss of 43 million euros ($51 million) last quarter, excluding a one-off gain from a stake sale, has held talks with Finnish phone giant Nokia (NOK1V.HE), among others, the magazine said.
Manager Magazin sourced the report to Siemens managers and plans to publish it on Friday.
A Siemens spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the report, which he said was speculation.
"The general market is consolidating, and there is a strong player, Siemens, that is looking at the developments and is considering its options," he said. "Everybody is talking to everybody."
Nokia declined to comment.
The magazine said the talks with Nokia had failed because the mobile phone maker was only interested in Siemens' profitable mobile networks equipment arm and not the loss-making fixed-line networks business.
A joint venture, among other options, had been under discussion, it said.
The magazine also said Siemens was currently in talks with several potential buyers of its loss-making Enterprise business, which supplies telecoms equipment to corporate clients, including U.S. telecoms equipment firm Avaya Inc. (AV.N: Quote, Profile, Research).
Avaya spokesman Scott Horne said the company had no comment on the matter.
Manager Magazin added that Siemens was considering a management buyout for its cordless phone business. © Reuters 2006. <<
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