BenQ-Siemens to close European arm
28th
September 2006
BenQ has announced the effective closure of it's
European operations, picked up from Siemens at the end
of last year, putting up to 3000 jobs at risk throughout
Europe. Funding to BenQ Mobile GmbH will cease and the
company will file for insolvency in the very near future,
according to an official
press release.
BenQ is citing continued losses at the BenQ-Siemens
subsidiary to blame, and although it has developed a
wide range of rather good handsets during 2006, sales
have been poor as the BenQ-Siemens brand has struggled
to compete against more established rivals.
BenQ's takeover of the Siemens business was only
sealed last year, and
the BenQ-Siemens brand itself was launched
in January 2006.
Although
BenQ intends to continue operating the BenQ-Siemens
brand from Asia. BenQ say that the impact on other operations
is still being evaluated, but it's clear that the loss
of the ex-Siemens design base will severely impact the
appeal of the brand.
At Mobile Gazette, we have been very impressed
with the way BenQ-Siemens was shaping up during 2006
with a range of attractive and innovative handsets,
a much more impressive effort than Motorola's minimal
efforts. But it appears that BenQ do not want to sink
any more money into this operation, and the potential
synergy that might have created a new Sony Ericsson
has been lost. We think this is a shame, but we understand
that the losses in BenQ's mobile division have been
enormous.
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