14 DAY TRIAL // This will be pretty sad news for anyone who liked mobile phones manufactured by Munich-based company Benq Mobile. It was commonly known that BenQ Mobile was very close to being shut down were it to not find another company willing to acquire it.
Now, the company will reportedly be split up and sold in pieces after a long period of time that they spent trying to find a buyer and failed.
A while ago, insolvency proceedings were opened against the German mobile phone manufacturer after no buyer was found and now the obvious is happening; since the company can't be sold as a whole, it will be split up and sold.
At some point in time there were some interested buyers, but this led to nothing and the company was forced to declare bankruptcy. According to insiders, Benq Mobile's management was fully aware of the cashflow problems since August, but avoided to communicate this to employees and delayed filing for bankruptcy for as long as possible.
Apparently, they had even made false statements regarding the number of handsets sold in the second quarter of last year, which had been reported at 10.7 million while the company actually sold 7.4 million handsets. Now, everything from workshops to desks will be sold and almost 3000 people will apparently loose their jobs.
About 550 workers have already found other jobs, some of them with Siemens. The remaining employees will continue receiving most of their previous wages for up to year according to an arrangement financed by Siemens. The Taiwanese electronics company Benq had taken over the mobile phone division of Siemens AG in 2005.