Infineon to Divest Wireline Business to Private Equity for EUR 250 Million

Infineon Technologies will sell its Wireline Communications (WLC) business to Golden Gate Capital for EUR250 million. Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with approximately $9 billion of capital under management.


Infineon's Wireline division supplies semiconductor solutions for ADSL/VDSL, access network processors, broadband CPE, TE carrier solutions, VoIP and digital cordless phones. Employment contracts for approximately 600 WLC employees will be transferred to the new company. Furthermore, an estimated 300 employees from Infineon central functions who already work on behalf of the WLC segment today are also designated to join the new company.


All products, locations and development projects will be continued by the new company. Around 800 patent families will be transferred.


Christian Wolff, who has led the division for many years, has been designated CEO of the new company. A name for the new company has not yet been announced.


Infineon said the divestiture enables it to focus on four segments: Automotive (ATV), Industrial & Multimarket (IMM), Chipcard & Security (CCS) and Wireless Solutions (WLS). The transaction will significantly improve Infineon's financial situation. Closing is expected in autumn 2009.


"The divestiture of the WLC segment is an important step in our overall refinancing process. Furthermore, our stronger focus enables us to expand our leading technological position in the three key sectors energy efficiency, communications and security", says Peter Bauer, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. As the Wireline Communications segment is relatively independent from the working and production processes of the company as a whole, the carve-out will involve reasonable effort.
http://www.infineon.com

• In 2007, Infineon Technologies acquired Texas Instruments' DSL Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) business. Financial terms were not disclosed.



• Also in 2007, LSI sold its mobility products business to Infineon Technologies for $450 million in cash, plus incentives. The division, which originally belonged to Agere Systems, designs semiconductors and software for cellular telephone handsets and complete chip-level solutions for satellite digital audio radio applications.

Read More

Latin American Mobile Carriers Launch Free-to-Air TV with Telegent

Telegent Systems, which supplies single-chip mobile TV solutions, reports accelerating adoption by leading operators throughout Latin America of mobile phones with a free-to-air TV feature.


Since December of last year, subsidiaries of América Móvil and Telefónica that are the leading operators in their country -- including Telcel in Mexico, Claro Argentina, COMCEL Colombia, and Movistar in Mexico and Peru -- have deployed multiple models of Telegent-enabled TV handsets that allow consumers to receive live, free-to-air broadcast TV programs -- without additional cost.


Telegent said free-to-air TV phones provide an additional benefit to operators -- because the phones leverage the existing broadcast ecosystem and TV content, operators are able to deliver the TV feature to customers without a significant financial investment in infrastructure and content licensing, and customers are able to access TV on their mobile without having to pay more for a service.
http://www.telegent.com

Read More

BridgeWave's Backhaul Links Video Surveillance Net in Texas

BridgeWave Communications' FE60U gigabit upgradeable wireless products are being used to power the wireless video surveillance network for the City of Highland Village in Texas. BridgeWave's radio links provide the backhaul for the surveillance video cameras. BridgeWave said that a fiber optic network for the surveillance cameras was not an option in this case due to cost and time-to-install. To cover the shopping centers, Highland Village used multiple license-free BridgeWave FE60U products for its advanced wireless security providing full-rate, full-duplex Fast Ethernet capacity. In addition, the ultra-low latency afforded by these wireless links allow officers at the monitoring station to utilize the camera's full pan-tilt-zoom function with little delay, providing razor sharp images as the camera moves to a new subject almost instantaneously. As the network adds more cameras, and thus requiring greater backhaul capacity, the FE60U links can be upgraded to full-rate gigabit speeds.
http://www.bridgewave.com

Read More

Orange Business Wins EUR 100 Million Deal with Total for Global VPN

Orange Business Services and Total have signed a 5-year global networking contract with a value of up to EUR 100 million. Under the deal, Orange Business Services is responsible for the integration, operation and optimization of WAN networks for Total at more than 1,000 sites in 100-plus countries.


Total, which is based in Paris and ranks as one of the largest oil and chemical companies in the world,
has set forth an IT VISION program that calls for all of its employees to use the same collaborative tools and with a uniform level of service wherever they are in the world.


Orange Business Services will be responsible for integrating and managing all of Total's networks whether provided by Orange or by third party operators. The goal is to deliver reliable, homogeneous and financially viable WAN services for every local Total entity. As the "integrator of operators", Orange Business Services will guarantee the continuity and quality of service for all of Total's WAN networks -- including supervision, operational and contractual management of third party suppliers, project management -- along with WAN optimization solutions.
http://www.orange.com

Read More

China's Sohu Picks 3Com's H3C for Next Gen Data Center

Sohu, one of China's leading search engines and online destinations, has selected 3Com's H3C data center solutions to build a next-generation data center. Sohu made its decision after a two-month field test of H3C's recently launched data center solutions portfolio -- including the S12500 Series core switch line and the S5800 Series 10-gigabit switch series. Financial terms of the exclusive network supplier contract were not disclosed.


As the first third-generation interactive Chinese search engine launched by Sohu, www.sogou.com is vital to the company's future business prospects and development. Sogou's launch requires a data center platform that can support storage of 10 billion Web pages; a Web page update and rating system; high-performance, concurrent access to and from numerous server clusters; and flexible expansion in years ahead.
http://www.3com.com

Read More

Ericsson Signs US$1.7 Billion Contracts with China Mobile, China Unicom

Ericsson signed 2G/3G framework agreements with China Mobile and China Unicom, valued at USD 1 billion and USD 0.7 billion respectively. China Mobile and China Unicom have received 3G licenses of TD-SCDMA and WCDMA standards respectively at the beginning of 2009. Together the two operators are currently serving more than 620 million mobile subscribers.


Under the deal with China Mobile, Ericsson will continue to deliver green solutions to support China Mobile's network energy optimization and CO2 emission reduction target. Ericsson will also expand GSM/GPRS network coverage and capacity in 18 provinces in China with related services. In addition, Ericsson also supports China Mobile's 3G network build-out by providing a wide range of innovative TD-SCDMA products and solutions.


Under the deal with China Unicom, Ericsson will not only become the main supplier to upgrade China Unicom's GSM networks in 10 provinces, but also provide the operator with GSM/WCDMA core network and/or wireless access system in 15 provinces, including transmission, IP and value-added service platform. Ericsson's strong local support team with global experience plays a key role in supporting China Unicom in launching the world's largest WCDMA commercial networks.
http://www.ericsson.com

Read More

T-Mobile UK Signs 4-Year Services Deal with Amdocs

T-Mobile UK awarded a four-year managed services agreement to Amdocs to manage the ongoing development, maintenance and support of T-Mobile UK's billing, customer care and ordering systems for its 16.7 million subscribers. Amdocs will also modernize T-Mobile UK's ordering system. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.t-mobile.co.ukhttp://www.amdocs.com

Read More

Cisco Appoints Chief Strategy Officer

Cisco has appointed Ned Hooper as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO).

Cisco appointed Ned Hooper as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). Hooper is an 11-year veteran of Cisco. Prior to his current role, he was Vice President of Business Development, where he led the company's acquisition strategy focusing on growth opportunities by entering new markets and integrating innovative technologies into Cisco businesses. Through acquisitions including Linksys, Scientific Atlanta, Webex, IronPort, Airspace and Pure Digital, he has led Cisco's expansion in new markets, resulting in more than $5 billion in additional annual revenue since 2002.
http://www.cisco.com

Read More

EMC Announced Definitive Deal to Acquire Data Domain

Following a protracted bidding war with NetApp, EMC Corporation announced a definitive agreement to acquire Data Domain , a leading provider of deduplication storage solutions, in a cash tender offer for $33.50 per share. The transaction is expected to have a total enterprise value of approximately $2.1 billion, net of Data Domain's cash.


Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman, President and CEO, said, "This is a compelling acquisition from both a strategic and financial standpoint. We look forward to bringing Data Domain together with EMC to form a powerful force in next-generation disk-based backup and archive. I have tremendous respect for Data Domain's people, technology and business, and anticipate great things ahead for our respective companies, our customers and partners."http://www.emc.com

Read More