German electronics firm Siemens could decide on the
future of its mobile phone manufacturing division as early as
January, a company spokesman has said.
"We are waiting for all the units within our newly merged
communications group to submit budgets before we make a
decision," he said. "This process should be finished by the end of
January."
The spokesman denied a news report in the Sunday edition of
German business newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung which
claimed that Siemens had already reached a decision to sell its
mobile phone business to China's Ningbo Bird Company. The Chinese
company has a distribution agreement with Siemens in China.
"We have not made any decisions yet," the spokesman said. "We
have a few options: we can co-operate with another company,
restructure the mobile phone business or sell it."
A spokesman for Ningbo Bird declined to comment.
John Blau writes for the IDG News Service (Paul Kallender
contributed to this article)