Nokia Siemens unloads WiMAX unit and 300 workers to NewNet

Only days after announcing a radical restructuring, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) sold its WiMAX business unit to NewNet Communication Technologies, a communications company owned by California-based private equity firm Skyview Capital LLC.

While NSN did not disclose the value of the deal, the sale will see the transfer of its entire WiMAX product portfolio, R&D capabilities, active customers and supplier contracts across to NewNet. The deal is expected to close by year-end.

NewNet, which sells signalling, messaging and media delivery systems for mobile operators, will also absorb the 300 employees dedicated to NSN's WiMAX business that are based in Chicago and Hangzhou, China.

NSN acquired this WiMAX unit as part of its purchase of Motorola Solutions earlier this year. NSN had also announced in November that it had agreed to sells its microwave transport business to DragonWave.

Nokia Siemens said last week that it plans to focus exclusively on the mobile broadband market, and said it will shed or shutter unrelated businesses, a move that analysts praised. NSN said it plans to cut 17,000 workers by 2013, for a total cost savings of around €1 billion. The WiMAX business was one of many that NSN has said it will either exit or put on "maintenance mode." Other areas that will get similar treatment include fixed-line VoIP, broadband access, narrowband, carrier Ethernet, business support systems and communications and entertainment solutions.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Reuters article
- see this Telegeography article

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