Japan's Renesas to buy Nokia wireless modem operations

Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp. said Tuesday it had reached an agreement to buy the wireless modem operations of mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. in a 200 million dollar deal.

The 18 billion yen transaction will entail the transfer to the Japanese company of the Nokia division's 1,100 workers in Finland, India and other countries, as well as wireless technology used in mobile phone handsets.

The wireless modem business to be transferred includes Nokia's modem technologies for wireless broadband standards LTE, HSPA and GSM, which have been used for billions of handsets worldwide for years.

Renesas, the world's third-largest semiconductor manufacturer by sales, also said it had agreed with Nokia on joint research and development into next-generation modem technology.

"Our collaboration with Nokia will enable consumers to enjoy true mobile cloud computing experiences through our advanced high-speed mobile devices," said Yasushi Akao, president of Renesas, in a statement.

The transfer, due to take place during the October-December period, is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the companies said.

Cloud computing refers to computer applications or data storage hosted online by technology firms instead of being installed and maintained on users' machines.

(c) 2010 AFP