BenQ Mobile to be Split Up and Sold
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Bankrupt German mobile phone maker BenQ Mobile will be sold off in pieces, after potential investment fails.
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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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(InfoWorld) - BenQÂ will close a mobile phone research and development center in Beijing as it continues to slim operations. The company opted earlier this year toÂ stop investing in a German subsidiaryÂ due to rising losses. The Taiwanese company will shift work from the Beijing center to R&D labs in Suzhou, China, and Taiwan, BenQ said Monday. Closing the Beijing facility will help it reduce costs and work more efficiently, it said. Around 400 workers in Beijing will be affected by the closure, but some of them are expected to relocate to Suzhou. The closure shows BenQ is still trying to recover from its push to become a global handset player via BenQ Mobile, the mobile phone operation itÂ took over from SiemensÂ last year. The operation was such a burden to Siemens that it paid BenQ â¬250 million ($327.1 million) to take it over. It proved too difficult for BenQ to turn around, despite strong intellectual property and a solid brand name in Europe. The decision to step away from the business cost BenQ dearly, and the company still faces financial troubles from the move.Â BenQ lost NT$12.22 billionÂ (US$375.1 million) in the third quarter of this year, mainly due to inventory and impairment charges related to BenQ Mobile. It was BenQ's fourth straight quarterly loss. In all, the Taiwanese company reckons it lost over US$1 billion in its mobile phone operations over the past year. Analysts roundly blamed stiff competition in the mobile handset business for BenQ's troubles. NokiaÂ and MotorolaÂ have been taking market share away from most of their rivals in the handset business this year.
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Company will exit the flat panel TV market.
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Company will begin selling the Vision Smart Device PPC-6601, a combination cell phone and Pocket PC device with a slide-out keyboard.
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(InfoWorld) - BenQ Mobile plans to file for bankruptcy protection in Germany after its Taiwanese parent decided to stop investing in the money-losing operation, the mobile phone maker said Thursday. Taiwan's BenQ Corp., which will continue to develop and market BenQ-Siemens brand mobile phones, said it made the decision because it saw no end to the losses after already sinking over â¬600 million ($761.7 million) into the unit. "We made this painful decision after losses continued to pile up despite our best efforts," said K.Y. Lee, chairman of BenQ, at a news conference in Taipei. BenQ said the bankruptcy filing should not affect customers since the parent company will continue to develop, manufacture, and sell BenQ-Siemens handsets from Asia. The decision comes almost a year after BenQÂ took over the mobile phone businessÂ from Siemens, and leaves the fate of 3,000 German workers at BenQ Mobile in doubt. It also highlights the difficulty of turning around a sinking business. Under Siemens, the handset division had been losing market share. The German company even paid BenQ â¬250 million to take the ailing division off its hands. BenQ has posted losses for the three financial quarters that have passed since it acquired BenQ Mobile. Analysts have blamed stiff competition in the mobile phone industry for the troubles many handset makers have faced this year. Industry leaders Nokia and Motorola have both gained market share this year, mainly at the expense of smaller rivals, according to market researcher Gartner. BenQ's share of the handset market dropped to 3.2 percent in the second quarter, from 4.8 percent the same time last year, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, Nokia's share rose to 33.6 percent from 31.6 percent, and Motorola's increased to 21.9 percent from 17.7 percent. If BenQ Mobile can return to financial health as it restructures under the protection of the German government, it could return to the BenQ family of companies, BenQ said. BenQ Mobile's headquarters in Munich, as well as sites in Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt in North-Rhine-Westphalia will be directly affected by the decision, while operations in Brazil will undergo a financial review. The Taiwanese company had already taken several steps to reduce costs and turn BenQ Mobile around, includingÂ laying offÂ over 500 workers earlier this year in Germany, and announcing a plan toÂ shut down mobile phone productionÂ in Taiwan. The company also announced several measures intended to streamline its operations, including a plan toÂ spin offÂ its non-handset manufacturing business.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Arts and crafts retailer Michaels   Stores Inc. MIK.N on Friday agreed to sell itself to two   private equity groups for more than $6 billion in a deal that   attracted many of the world's biggest buyout firms.
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Attempts to find an investor for bankrupt German mobile phone maker BenQ Mobile GmbH &amp; Co. OHG have failed, after the last potential buyer ended negotiations, the company's insolvency administrator said Sunday.
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A sale of part or all of its mobile phone unit would allow Telecom Italia to focus on broadband and content.
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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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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¦
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By Gordon, James  ALLTEL CORP.'S SPIN-OFF OF ITS WIRELINE division last summer represented a split of the company's future from its past, separating its highgrowth wireless division from its shrinking wireline division.
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Motorola needs a successor to its  successful RAZR phone to hold on to market share, and BenQ  Mobile is set to make gains when new products kick in, market  research group Gartner said in a survey on Wednesday.
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The personal computer maker said it planned to sell its slumping cellphone unit so that it could focus on its personal computer business.
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BRITISH Telecom today announced the sale of its stake in one of the worldâs largest satellite companies for Â£363 million. The telecoms giant said it was offloading its 15.8 per cent holding in Paris-based
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BenQ blamed poor product management for racking up losses of over â¬840 million ($1.07 billion) at its mobile division, BenQ Mobile.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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(InfoWorld) - BenQÂ plans to offer a 65-inch LCD TV in the second half of this year as it moves to expand the size of its LCD TV products, a manager in its digital media group said Friday. The company is also researching the possibility of using LED (light emitting diode) backlights in some desktop LCDs (liquid crystal displays), including 19-inch and 21-inch sizes. The company currently has noÂ laptop PCs equipped with LED backlightsÂ due to concerns that the displays are too easy to break, said Greg Lin, a manager at BenQ's digital media group, in Taipei. BenQ plans to offer a range of new LCD TV products this year, including a new 37-inch model that supports full high definition viewing, due out in April, and a 46-inch model to be launched in July or August. "Our focus is on the middle to high end LCD TV, and we want to increase our offering of larger and larger sizes," said Lin. The new LCD TVs will be sold in Taiwan, China, and the Middle East initially, and some will make it to Europe by the second half of this year, he said. The LCD panel used in the TV makes the biggest difference in picture quality, and it's down to the supplier to improve their technology in order to meet user demands for clear images and vivid colors, he said. Around 80 percent of BenQ's LCD panels come from AU Optronics, he said. LED backlights, which greatly enhance color saturation in LCD TVs but cost a lot more than older technologies, could be used in BenQ LCD TVs sometime in 2008, he said. Currently, LED backlights for larger displays go into high end LCD TVs. AU has said it ships some LCD TV panels equipped with LED backlights to customers in Japan that are willing to pay a premium for the picture quality. A backlight is a light behind the LCD display, on a laptop, monitor or TV, used to illuminate the screen. Most flat displays currently rely on cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights because the technology is less expensive than LEDs. The LED backlights can be two to three times more expensive than CCFLs, an executive at AU, the world's third largest LCD (liquid crystal display) screen maker, said in an interview last year. LED makers have been driving down costs by putting LEDs into more gadgets. The more they increase production, the lower their per-LED cost. LEDs are now used in auto lights and the small displays on DVD players and MP3 digital music devices. Some companies, including Asustek Computer, are starting to announce new laptop PCs with LED backlights in their screens. As costs come down, LEDs will be used in larger and larger screens. Â