Movement at Motorola?: Investors Consider Motorola’s Handset Division

April 7, 2009

After months of dreadful news, there might be light at the end of the tunnel according to a recent post from Fierce Wireless. Advent International, a private equity firm, is eyeing the possibility of purchasing and marrying Motorola’s handset division and Nortel’s network assets. Will there be a honeymoon?

Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January and is reputed to be in talks with potential buyers for its wireless and enterprise telecom businesses, including rival Nokia Siemens Networks.

Motorola has taken a defensive posture stating it will not spin off its mobile devices, rather, according to Financial Times, co-CEO Greg Brown is looking toward a turnaround in Q2 of 2009.

The initiative isn’t new. Both Nortel and Motorola have toyed with the idea. In 2008 Motorola was reportedly in negotiations with Nortel about an infrastructure merger to create a USD 10bn business.

Advent is approaching other investors to join its consortium, including CVC, who declined.

Posted By Russ · In Industry 

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