Nokia Siemens in talks to buy Motorola’s telecom-equipment business

Nokia Siemens Networks is in talks to buy Motorola's telecommunications-equipment business, The Wall Street Journal today reported.

The paper, citing people familiar with the matter said that the both companies are discussing terms of the deal, which could be worth $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion and the transaction could be closed in the next few weeks.

Nokia Siemens Networks is an equal joint venture between Espoo, Finland-based Nokia Corporation and Berlin, Germany-based Siemens AG.

Chinese networking equipment maker Huawei Technologies was also interested in buying Motorola's telecom business, but talks have cooled down due to the global perception that that the company's has close links to the Chinese military and the deal may not pass regulatory hurdles.

Motorola's telecom business has not been able to catch up with the latest technology and still makes older equipments, but the deal would give Nokia Siemens access to Motorola's customers in the US such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, according to the paper.

In February 2010, the once undisputed technology leader, Motorola had said that it would split the companies into two publicly-traded companies, each of which accounted for roughly half of Motorola's $22 billion in sales in 2009. (See: Motorola plans to split early next year)

Last week, Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola detailed plans of breaking up the company into two separate entities, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that include changing names of the newly-formed publicly-traded entities. (See: Motorola outlines break-up plans, renames companies) 

Motorola Inc will be split into two companies - the new entity to be called Motorola Mobility and the current company being renamed Motorola Solutions, which will retain the enterprise and carrier infrastructure businesses.