Motorola and Siemens are in talks to create a joint venture for either their wireless infrastructure business or their handset business or both, the Wall Street Journal Europereported today, quoting sources familiar with the situation.
The deal could create ventures with a total value of between $20 and 25 billion (euro 22-27.5 billion), the newspaper said.
Talks had been going on since the start of the summer, but they were still at a delicate stage and could fall apart, it continued.
No announcment was imminent, it added.
The talks were being held at a point where many of the leading mobile phone makers had been hit hard by the global economic slump.
Philips Electronics had restructured its unprofitable handset business and Sony and Ericsson had joined forces and set up a joint venture to produce mobile phones.
At the same time, while mobile phone operators have spent billions of dollars on new mobile phone licences, they were getting cold feet about spending even more to buy the equipment to get the new networks up and running.
AFP