Nokia Siemens gets nod for acquisition of Motorola assets

BEIJING - Chinese authorities have approved Nokia Siemens Networks' planned acquisition of some of Motorola Solution Inc's network equipment assets this week, according to a Nokia Siemens spokeswoman.

The approval from China's Ministry of Commerce came as the last of nine anti-trust nods Nokia Siemens needed from various regions and countries for the Motorola acquisition.

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Analysts said the company might now successfully complete the acquisition this month.

Nokia Siemens announced in July that it planned to buy most of Motorola Inc's network equipment assets for $1.2 billion.

The deal could open the profitable North American market for Nokia Siemens and make it a stronger global competitor to China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Nokia Siemens had sales of $17.4 billion in 2010, behind Telefon AB LM Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent SA.

Nokia Siemens reported on Thursday that its revenue reached 3.17 billion euros ($4.63 billion) in the first quarter, up 17 percent from a year earlier. The company expected second quarter sales to be between 3.2 and 3.5 billion euros.

However, in the Chinese market, the benefits of the acquisition will be limited, said Tina Tian, a Beijing-based analyst at the global research firm, Gartner.

Nokia Siemens is unlikely to pose a major challenge to Huawei and ZTE when the purchase is completed. It should adjust its market strategy in China and make early preparations for construction of the country's Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, Tian said.

Chinese media reported the ministry postponed announcing the results of its review on March 9 over concerns of potential infringement of Huawei's intellectual property by Motorola.

Huawei took legal action in a US district court in January, demanding Motorola should not transfer Huawei technology to Nokia Siemens.

The companies settled the legal dispute on April 13 with Motorola agreeing to pay an undisclosed transfer fee to Huawei. The sale price of Motorola's networks business was reduced to $975 million from $1.2 billion.