NSN bags Mot for $1.2b

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) yesterday confirmed it will buy the bulk of Motorola’s wireless infrastructure business for $1.2 billion in cash.

 

The price covers Motorola’s GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, Wimax and LTE businesses, but excludes the US vendor’s iDen division and its wireless patents, NSN said.

 

While the vendor will finance the deal itself, parent companies Siemens and Nokia will extend a shareholder loan worth €500 million ($646m) once the acquisition is approved, WSJ.com reports.

 

NSN CEO Rajeev Suri said the widely-anticipated deal would strengthen the firm’s global presence and “enhance our scale in the United States, Japan, and other priority regions.”

 

The addition of the Motorola unit would move NSN from no. 5 to no 3 in North America and consolidate its position as no.2 in the global infrastructure market, Suri said.

 

The deal offered relationships with more than 50 operators, including tier 1 players such as China Mobile, KDDI, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, NSN said.