17 Feb 2008
China's ZTE is reported to be in talks with Motorola over a wider cooperation - which could presumably spark rumours about a possible merger of the two companies respective handset divisions. Speaking to Reuters, Xiong Hui, a marketing vice president for handsets said that ZTE was looking to deepen its relationship with Motorola.
"We've been keeping in touch with Motorola on a wider cooperation," Hui said through a translator in an interview with Reuters. He did not give specific details about the companies' existing ties or their future plans.
ZTE recently started selling its first handsets in the USA, and has a long term partnership for low-cost phones with Vodafone.
Motorola's handset division has been valued at between US$9-12 billion. Last week, both Samsung and LG denied being interested in taking on Motorola's handset division.
Last week though, Motorola's Chief Executive Greg Brown said at the Mobile Congress World that the company is fully committed to its handset division, so a SonyEricsson style merger with another company might be more likely.
There have also been rumours that Motorola could be in talks with Nortel on a possible merger of their respective network infrastructure divisions. Nortel's current CEO, Mike Zafirovski was Motorola's president and chief operating officer before taking over as head of the Canada-based company in November 2005.
On the web: Reuters
