Nokia Sells Its Wireless Modem Business

Nokia has just announced that it will sell its wireless modem business to Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, for approximately 200 million USD. The Finnish giant has stated that the acquisition is part of an agreement between the companies, which intends to deepen their collaboration by forming a strategic business alliance.

The new alliance is set to develop modem technologies for HSPA+/LTE (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access / Long-Term Evolution) and to cooperate on future radio technologies, by long-term joint research cooperation.

"The agreement with Nokia demonstrates our long-standing commitment to shape the future of advanced mobile platforms and will serve as an important step for us to become a leading mobile platform vendor in the global market. Our collaboration with Nokia will enable consumers to enjoy true mobile cloud computing experiences through our advanced high-speed mobile devices," said Yasushi Akao, President of Renesas Electronics Corporation.

It seems that the planned transfer is expected to strengthen Renesas Electronics' position as one of the most important chipset vendors in the 3G and LTE market. The company will be capable of providing one-stop mobile platform solutions, supporting an extensive range of modem protocols from GSM to LTE, and integrating advanced multimedia and computer processing capabilities.

"Wireless modems are an integral part of today's chipset solutions, and we believe that Renesas Electronics, as one of the key chipset vendors in the market, is in an ideal position to further develop this offering. The alliance enables us to continue to focus on our own core businesses, connecting people to what matters to them with our mobile products and solutions," stated Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President, Nokia.

Both companies agreed that the transfer is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is estimated to take place during the fourth quarter of 2010.