The closing of Nokia Siemens Networks pending $1.2 billion acquisition of Motorola Inc.’s (MOT) public carrier wireless network infrastructure assets has been pushed back to the first quarter of next year due to still to be completed regulatory and antitrust clearance.
NSN said the deal, which was originally announced in July and set to close by the end of this year, was still waiting for regulatory approval from Chinese authorities and antitrust clearance from the United States, European Union, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey.
If approved by all authorities, NSN said it expects 7,500 employees to transfer from Motorola to NSN, including research and development sites in the United States, China and India.
“This delay is disappointing, but we’re looking forward to completing the acquisition early in the new year,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO at NSN. “We are continuing to work closely with the authority in China to finalize the clearance process in that country. We recognize its efforts in addressing this case as a matter of importance.”
The Motorola acquisition is expected to give NSN a greater presence in the United States and Japan. Just after announcing the acquisition plans, NSN snagged a $7 billion network constructing and management deal from LightSquared.
NSN, which is a joint venture between Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Siemens AG (SI), is reportedly close to securing funding from private equity firms.
Nokia Siemens' Motorola acquisition pushed to early 2011
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