Siemens, BenQ agree to launch joint venture mobile handset business: source

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2005

FRANKFURT (AFP) — German engineering giant Siemens is planning to launch a joint venture mobile handset business with Taiwan's BenQ Corporation, a source close to the situation said.

The source said the details of the deal would be announced early Tuesday.

According to the Tuesday edition of the newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, Siemens, the third largest industrial group in Germany behind DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen, will give up most of its mobile handset business to its Taiwan partner.

The handset business, which employs 10,000 people, will be integrated into a subsidiary of BenQ and Siemens will retain a stake in the joint venture of less than 10 percent, the newspaper reported.

Siemens has been searching for a partner for its mobile phone...