BenQ to Dismantle, Sell Mobile Division
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Taiwan based BenQ acknowledged over the weekend that its mobile handset division had no chance of being sold as a whole and thus would be liquidated after filing for bankruptcy last September. BenQ had acquired the struggling business from Siemens in June 2005, but failed to turn it around.
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By Middle East and North Africa Business Report, Amman, Jordan  Sep. 10--BenQ Siemens, the innovative mobile communication solutions provider, is gearing up to tap the fast growing cellular phone user base in the UAE with its recently launched range of mobile phones.
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Rank is planning to sever its last link with its celluloid heritage with the sale or demerger of its Deluxe film-making arm. The group yesterday said it would investigate &quot;separating&quot; Deluxe
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The HDTV technology company is moving a key part of its future in house.
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Japanese electronics giant may cease selling plasma TVs.
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By Anna Marie Kukec Daily Herald Business Writer  Goodbye, analog.  Or shall we say, good riddance? At least that could be what executives at the mobile phone service providers are thinking.
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Following the recent announcement that it will be terminating its online music store. Virgin announced yesterday that it will turn its mobile phone business public with an IPO.
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(InfoWorld) - Under mounting pressure from German government officials and former employees of the mobile phone division it paid BenQ to take off its hands, Siemens has set up a â¬35 million ($44.4 million) fund to aid workers at risk of losing their jobs. The move comes just days after BenQ announced it wouldÂ stop investing in BenQ Mobile, because it saw no end to the losses after already sinking over â¬600 million into the unit. BenQ Mobile, which employs 3,000 workers in Germany, immediately said it wouldÂ file for bankruptcy protection. Newspaper reports cited name calling and legal threats from both Siemens and BenQ in the dispute over the fate of workers at BenQ Mobile, but a BenQ representative said there has been no official contact between the two companies and that much of the talk is mere speculation. On Tuesday, Siemens announced it would set up the employee education and retraining fund, contributing â¬5 million of the sum from a salary increase already approved for Siemens' management, it said in a statement. The German electronics giant said its decision toÂ sell the mobile phone division to BenQÂ provided the greatest possible benefits to employees at the time of the sale, and that closing the business outright would have been a less expensive option. BenQ had presented a credible plan for operating and expanding the mobile phone division at the time of the sale, and Siemens believed it was sincere, the company said. The company expressed shock at BenQ's decision to "put its people on the street." BenQ declined to immediately comment on the jab. Siemens paid BenQ â¬250 million to take the loss-making division off its hands last year, and even agreed to buy a â¬50 million stake in BenQ to solidify the deal. Since then, BenQ Mobile's business has continued to deteriorate as rivals in the mobile phone industry snap up market share. The division caused BenQ toÂ post lossesÂ in each of the past three financial quarters.
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Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa is to float off its mobile phone businesses in Asia. The huge conglomerate, which has so far sunk US$22 billion into 3G licence acquisition and network build in Europe, hopes
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Telkom South Africa may sell the rest of a mobile-phone venture, the nationâs biggest, to Vodafone Group and dispose of its fixed-line unit to the MTN Group. Telkom South Africa said in a statement that it was in talks with Vodafone and MTN over âmobile strategy.â Telkom, which has a market value of about 103.4 billion rand ($14.4 billion), declined to give details. MTN and Vodafone confirmed the discussions in separate statements. The sales would effectively dismantle what was until last year a monopoly over fixed-line phone services in South Africa. They also would give the government an exit from its investment in Telkom. South Africa owns about 38 percent of the company.
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(InfoWorld) - Taiwan's BenQ Corp. launched as a new corporate entity on Sept. 1, with plans to focus on digital projectors, computer monitors and other electronics, while its former main business, mobile phones, takes a back seat. It's a big change from a year ago. BenQ has now come full circle from its 2005 takeover of Siemens AG's mobile phone unit. The Taiwanese company was never able to turn the troubled business around, despite Siemens paying BenQ â¬250 million (US$340.8 million) to take the ailing division off its hands. Six money-losing quarters after the acquisition, BenQ called it quits, citing cutthroat competition and an inability to drive down costs at the German unit. By then, it had racked up losses of over â¬840 million. In its new form, BenQ is the branded division of Qisda Corp., which replaced the old name, BenQ, as the legal entity and the company listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Qisda is the manufacturing side of the former BenQ, and the plan is to spin off the new BenQ within the next few years once it's healthy. One of the biggest changes at BenQ is a lighter focus on mobile phones. While BenQ will still market handsets and focus on select markets, it will drop high profile advertising campaigns such as sponsorship of the Real Madrid football club and other big budget programs. Instead, it will target a smaller budget on its strongest products. This year, the company's best products are digital projectors and computer monitors, which it expects to lead it to a break-even year on sales of around NT$60 billion (US$1.82 billion). By 2009, the company forecasts sales to reach NT$100 billion. Hurdles remain. The insolvency administrator of the company's former mobile phone unit in Germany, BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG, is suing Qisda to recoup over â¬100 million in past account payables and employee bonuses. Qisda is considering filing counterclaims against the lawsuits. Qisda executives also face the prospect of jail time for alleged insider stock trading in Taiwan, related to when the company revealed losses tied to BenQ Mobile. The Taoyuan District Court in Taiwan started court proceedings against some Qisda executives in mid-July, including Chairman K.Y. Lee and Chief Financial Officer Eric Yu. Qisda has denied any wrongdoing on the part of its executives. Â
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The layoffs come as Motorola completes the spinoff of its semiconductor division. Also: Akimbo Systems signs a deal for content from Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System & hellip;. PalmSource introduces a smart phone operating system & hellip;. and more.
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IT services vendor LogicaCMG Plc's involvement in the mobile communications software space is over following the sale of its telecoms products division to a private equity group for 265m pounds ($348m) in cash.
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Buyers pale at huge debts German administrators have given up in their efforts to find a buyer for the cellphone maker BenQ Mobile, which went bankrupt at the tail end of last year. Almost all jobs will go at the former Siemens outfit, which Taiwanese electronics group BenQ picked up in 2005.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Three of the world's largest manufacturers of mobile phones will not participate at next year's Cebit trade show, following a review of their marketing activities. BenQ, Motorola, and NokiaÂ will not have their own booth at the Hanover IT trade show in 2007, and rumors abound that other vendors, particularly in the consumer electronics segment, might also skip the annual event. "We won't have our own stand at Cebit but will show our products at the stands of our carrier customers who plan to attend the show," a Motorola spokeswoman said Tuesday. The spokeswoman declined to comment on reasons for the Cebit pullout, saying only the company has made changes to its trade fair marketing strategy in Europe. On Monday, BenQ and its cellular arm, BenQ Mobile, announced its decision not to exhibit at Cebit. The Taiwanese manufacturing group is currently considering a joint appearance at the annual IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin in line with its greater focus on consumer electronics products, it said in a statement. BenQ Mobile, which has taken over the mobile phone manufacturing operations of Siemens, also plans to extend its engagement at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, the manufacturer said. Last month, Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, disclosed its decision to withdraw from Cebit. "We want to focus more on our own house events, such as the Open Studio event, which we held this year in Berlin," Nokia spokeswoman Kristina Bohlmann said Tuesday. Nokia will continue to exhibit at the 3GSM show, a key event for the mobile phone industry and one that the Finnish manufacturer prefers to use to announce new products, according to Bohlmann. "The two shows are only about three weeks apart, and 3GSM comes first, so it's just more important for industry news," she said. Enthusiasm for Cebit among manufacturers of consumer electronics products has been on the wane in recent years, due largely to the perception of many companies that the big and costly show mainly draws business people rather than consumers. Last year, Koninklijke Philips Electronics pulled out of Cebit, and some other big consumer electronics manufacturers, including LG Electronics, are rumored to be mulling a no-show as well.
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Sell it or spin it off? Motorola is considering various options to sort out its mobile phone division which lost the company $1.2bn in 2007.â¦
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3,000 jobs axed BenQ's mobile phone business - the former Siemens division BenQ took over less than a year ago for â¬250m - is facing imminent collapse.â¦