Motorola's phone division to be bought by Videocon?

[krisse]

The Indian industrial giant Videocon is apparently interested in buying Motorola's handset business. Videocon already have licences to build 3G phone networks in India, and see potential benefits from also owning a handset manufacturing unit. Motorola currenly owns half of UIQ Technology and manufactures UIQ3 handsets, so such a sale may have implications for the Symbian world. (via Mobile Burn)

Read on in the full article.

[krisse]

mocoNews, the site which Mobile Burn noticed this story on, has some very interesting links to related stories:

Sony Ericsson Not Interested In Motorola Handset Division
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-so...dset-division/

LG Doesn’t Want Motorola’s Handset Business Either
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-lg...siness-either/

Samsung Won’t Buy Motorola Handset Unit Either
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-sa...t-unit-either/

And apparently Nokia's not interested either.

The problem seems to be that Moto's rivals are already gaining market share anyway, and they aren't sure what advantage they would get from buying Moto apart from the brand name.

This news was reported around 2 months ago. Donno why they reporting it again now. It's the same article 2 month old article.

[Hardeep1singh]

Correct, and I remember submitting it to AAS news at that time, it was ignored back then but I'm amazed to see this news coming up on AAS (ofcourse with someone else's reference) after it became stale.

[malerocks]

Hardeep, yes it is surprising that this news has come here after such a long time. I had read this news a couple of months ago too. But I had read it in Economic Times. I guess they dont publish it here unless they have faith in the website that the news is originally published on.

[krisse]

This news was reported around 2 months ago. Donno why they reporting it again now.

The news that Motorola wanted to sell its phone division was reported two months ago.

But the news that Videocon is a potential buyer is something recent.

There's a massive difference between announcing you're going to sell, and finding a potential buyer. As the headlines in my first comment showed, no one seems to want to buy Motorola, so the interest of Videocon is big news.

Look at the struggle that the airline Alitalia has had trying to find a buyer, companies don't always find one, especially if they're doing badly.

[Rafe]

Originally Posted by Hardeep1singh

Correct, and I remember submitting it to AAS news at that time, it was ignored back then but I'm amazed to see this news coming up on AAS (ofcourse with someone else's reference) after it became stale.

My apologies if you sent something in. It would have come to me - and if I missed it it is my fault. I've added your blog to my RSS feeds so hopefully we can credit you for something in the future.

[tenoce]

Maybe I am wrong, but even the Videocon news is almost 2 weeks old:

"Having failed to take Daewoo, Videocon showed interest in bidding for Motorola's handset business"to become a global player", according to Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot, when other heavyweights like Nokia and Samsung had held back."

BusinessWeek, Friday, May 16, 2008 11:21 AM

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/busine...2041426,00.htm

[krisse]

Apologies if the Videocon news was mentioned somewhere a couple of weeks ago, but I certainly hadn't heard it before and apparently neither had Mobile Burn or mocoNews or the Business Standard.

[viipottaja]

Would be fantastic news from the point of view of developing country companies getting more and more global.

[krisse]

Would be fantastic news from the point of view of developing country companies getting more and more global.

Absolutely, that's where the majority of phones are sold and it's where the future of the mobile world will be decided.

As has been pointed out often before, Nokia's two biggest markets are China and India.

April 2, 2008 12:56 PM PDT
India's Videocon considering Motorola phone business
Posted by Tom Krazit

Motorola's phone business has at least one suitor: India's Videocon.

This news is around 1 and a half months old.

[krisse]

This news is around 1 and a half months old.

I'd never heard about it, it's obviously important, it was picked up a couple of days ago by three major sites before us including one dedicated to Indian business, so I posted it.

I'm sorry if it was old, but these things happen.

I'm not saying anything to you. It isn't your fault, so don't feel bad about it

What amazes me is how so many news agencies have been running this old news.

could it be possible that Moto is behind this ?

afaik the talk haven't progressed.

[krisse]

could it be possible that Moto is behind this ?

Well, it looks like Motorola are having trouble getting a buyer so perhaps this is some kind of attempt to drum up interest?

I suppose what's worrying for Moto is that failing phone units which are sold off tend to just disappear rather than be successfully integrated into another company. The last major manufacturer to sell their unit was Siemens to BenQ, but that didn't seem to go as planned.

As some people have pointed out, a lot of the value in a sale would be for Motorola's brand name, but would Motorola (the parent company) allow the name to be permanently used by the phone unit after they sell it off? They didn't when they sold off their chip unit.