Motorola Buys BenQ Research Center

Motorola has purchased a research office based in Denmark from BenQ Mobile. The Aalborg facility and team will be integrated into Motorola's Mobile Devices business and become a products development center for Motorola. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Located in the "Danish Silicon Valley," the Aalborg facility features state-of-the-art measurement facilities, including antenna chambers, acoustical chambers, radio frequency chambers, environmental laboratories and measuring facilities related to mechanical development. The main facility in Aalborg is currently owned by a Danish Pension Fund and leased to Siemens Real Estate who leases it to BenQ Mobile. Motorola expects to enter into a lease directly with Siemens at closing.

As part of the transaction, Motorola will acquire approximately 250 employees, the majority of whom are engineers.

"This transaction provides Motorola with another highly skilled R&D team and high-tech facility with a proven product track record and is further indication of Motorola's continued interest and commitment to the European region," said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola Mobile Devices.

"This acquisition will enhance Motorola's capabilities in mobile phone development, software application development and antenna technology," Garriques said. "The Aalborg team will support Motorola's development of innovative new mobile devices that increase our ability to deliver breakthrough products and services that integrate the technologies of both Motorola and our strategic partners. Though our partnerships with Kodak, Google and Yahoo!, among others, we are creating the next generation of 'must have' devices that make possible new user experiences, like seamless social networking, instant Internet and seamless media sharing."

Through the sale of the R&D-Site to Motorola BenQ Mobile continues its restructuring strategy. Already in March BenQ Mobile announced to centralize its German development activities at the sites in Munich and Kamp-Lintfort/Northrhine-Westphalia and to relocate its R&D employees from Ulm to Munich until end of May.

"One of our targets is to streamline operations and to simplify our fragmented product development assignments through the consolidation to major sites. By offloading complexity in R&D we will be able to develop faster new handsets and to launch products earlier in the competitive handset market." said Clemens Joos , CEO of BenQ Mobile. Besides Munich and Kamp-Lintfort in Germany and Wroclav in Poland BenQ-Siemens handsets are also developed at Asian sites in China & Taiwan and in Brasil. "With the sale of the R&D-Site in Aalborg/Denmark we found an ideal solution for the employees and make a further important step to be in the black by the end of the year." underlined Clemens Joos .

This transaction does not include any business, products or other assets from BenQ Mobile, including any intellectual property, manufacturing or supply relationships, or sales and administrative capabilities. In addition, Motorola is not acquiring any of BenQ Mobile capital, liabilities or financial obligations."

Posted to the site on 4th May 2006