Nokia Dumps WiMAX Business, NewNet Scoops It Up

From DailyTech: Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) -- a joint venture between Finland's Nokia Oyj. (HEL:NOK1V) and Germany's Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) -- is a giant in the telecom industry, behind only Ericsson AB (STO:ERIC B) and China's privately owned Huawei Technologies Comp., Ltd. in gear (e.g. base stations, etc.) sales. With Nokia's well-documented core sales struggles, the gearmaker subsidiary has also been impacted and has looked to tighten the belt.

As part of that effort it just sold [Press Release] its WiMAX unit to NewNet Communication Technologies, LLC, a Skyview Capital, LLC portfolio company. WiMAX is a fourth generation (4G) telecommunications standard, which has been back by, among others, Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) in the U.S.

Much like the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray war, WiMAX has fallen out of international favor while LTE is now accepted by most of the de facto 4G solution for future deployments (even Sprint is working to switch to LTE by the end of 2012). This stands in contrast to the last generation where GSM and CDMA vied for international supremacy in the 3G market, an even today still are locked in this battle.

The WiMAX unit was actually a relatively recent addition for NSN, purchased in 2010, back when things looked more promising for the standard. Despite its parent company Nokia's widely publicized view that LTE was the future and WiMAX was a footnote, NSN still sold WiMAX solutions prior to the purchase. At the time it was simply rebranding Alvarion Ltd. (TA:ALVR) WiMAX products -- an Israeli wireless solutions provider.

NSN received the WiMAX unit as part of a 2010 $1.2B USD purchase of Motorola's Network infrastructure unit, which was like more driven out of the desire to grab the LTE and 3G technologies and intellectual property, with WiMAX a fringe benefit. The deal helped close Motorola Inc.'s effort to divide into two companies, which began in 2008. The one company -- Motorola Solutions, Inc. (MSI) used to be the parent of the network infrastructure division. After the sale it focused its efforts on its enterprise mobility solutions division, which is active to this day.

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