The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has given unconditional approval for the acquisition of Motorola’s networks business by the European vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).
In a statement, NSN said that the companies are aiming to close the deal…
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has given unconditional approval for the acquisition of Motorola’s networks business by the European vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).
In a statement, NSN said that the companies are aiming to close the deal by 29 April and that the start of operations would be on the following day.
This date is dependent on some legal filings, relating to the disputes between the Chinese vendor Huawei and Motorola Solutions in the US, being completed on time.
NSN is paying US$975m for the assets, a significant reduction from the fee of US$1.2bn that was suggested when the deal was originally announced in July 2010.
An NSN spokesman said: “This is a good deal for Nokia Siemens Networks. This transaction would significantly strengthen our global presence, particularly in the US and Japan. It also gives us a large footprint with CDMA customers.”
There is no change in the scope of the business being acquired, despite the reduction in price.
When the deal was announced last year, NSN said that the network infrastructure business it was acquiring would provide services and products using multiple technologies, including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE.
The network business has 41 WiMAX contracts in 21 countries, 30 active CDMA networks in 22 countries, and “excellent traction with LTE early adopters”.
NSN also said then that it was looking to gain incumbent relationships with over 50 operators and strengthen its relationship with others.
Approximately 7,500 Motorola employees were set to transfer to NSN as part of the deal.
Motorola divided into two parts in January, with Motorola Mobility taking on the mobile side of the business and Motorola Solutions focussing on business and government communications.
According to the original announcement, it would maintain control of its iDEN network and all the patents that were involved with its wireless network infrastructure business.
NSN had originally aimed to close the deal in Q1 2011, but this had to be delayed as it waited for approval from the Chinese regulators. The deal was reviewed by the Anti-Monopoly bureau of MOFCOM.
The deal was also challenged by Huawei, who had worked with Motorola for ten years prior to the deal.
Huawei argued that the deal would involve Motorola transferring confidential Huawei intellectual property to NSN.
In February, Huawei won a preliminary injunction in a US district court, which prevented Motorola from trading Huawei’s intellectual property to NSN.
But on 13 April, Huawei and Motorola Solutions said that they had come to an agreement to settle all pending legal action between them.
NSN has said previously that it would not give any information on its financial advisers for the acquisition of the Motorola network business, but it did say that its legal adviser in the US was Skadden.
Motorola Solutions was advised by the law firms Winston & Strawn and Baker & McKenzie.
