Siemens' Comm business

Siemens' Comm business
Siemens is discussing the possible sale of its main communications unit, Communications or Comm. The unit is the largest unit in Siemens, with about €13bn in annual turnover, and employing some 55,000 people. In 1Q06, the unit reported sales of about €3.4bn with a loss of about €43m. The operating profit fell 13% to €323m. In March, several vendors were talking with Siemens, including Motorola, Nortel, Ericsson, Nokia, Lucent. In the meantime, Lucent decided to merge with Alcatel, Nokia and Ericsson denied to be interested, remains Motorola and Nortel. Up to now, only Motorola confirmed talks, but Motorola seems only interested in Siemens mobile infra business, when Siemens looks after a full package. The other option could be Nortel. Of course, Nortel is not in good form, but the deal would create a super competitor to Alcatel/Lucent, with leading market share in some key markets, such as mobile infra (ca. 22%), enterprise communications ( ca 28%) or optical (ca 19%). Motorola? Nortel? An outsider? Or statu quo? Who nows?