Advertisment

Freescale drops plan to sell off cell unit biz

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

AUSTIN, USA: Swaying away from earlier plans, the Texas based Freescale Semiconductor is said to have given up initiatives aimed at selling its cellular unit for now.

Advertisment

The company had, last year, decided that it would exit the wireless IC business by putting the cellular products group up for sale in its bid to snip escalating costs. However, the move fizzled out as no buyer could be found.

In January last, Freescale decided to stay put and mull over other options in this regard. Industry sources said it had even proposed selling off the cellular unit business in pieces rather than holding out for a single buyer.

Freescale had sold a small part of its wireless chip business to Fujitsu Microelectronics. However, it might have had to part with most of the resources associated with it if the same had happened.

Advertisment

With the company now having abandoned efforts aimed at sale, it would carry along the cellular unit business too. The failure of finding an attractive price has did it in.

“Freescale has now decided to continue its cellular operations, but on a smaller level, through supporting its current iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) business with Motorola and RIM,'' said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a research major has said in a report in this regard.

The company, in the meanwhile, has effectively decreased manpower and shed enough flab. Freescale’s cellular revenues during the second quarter of the current year had risen by 45 per cent to $138 million.

semicon