April 17, 2006

A German newspaper reported that Motorola is looking into buying Siemens A.G.’s money-losing telecom equipment unit, Com.

The Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported that Motorola is mostly interested in the profit-bearing Mobile Network division of Com.

However, Siemens wants to sell Com in its entirety.

Com is Siemens’ largest unit and employs some 55,000 people. The unit’s operating profits slipped 13 percent to $396 million from $4.2 billion in sales during the first fiscal quarter.

Com’s losses would have been about $52.7 million for the quarter, but the sale of its stake in Juniper Networks helped stave off larger losses.

Reports have also surfaced about Com’s leadership having been in talks with other companies interested in the company, including Nokia Corp.

The German paper said Siemens’ board of directors is set to meet April 24 and would likely discuss the future of the Com unit.

Siemens has been focusing on healthcare and power technologies, which generally produce more reliable earnings than electronic equipment.

Siemens and Motorola declined to comment.

Source: RCR