Kyocera Sells Indian R&D Subsidiary

Japan's Kyocera­ has sold its India-based engineering group Kyocera Wireless India (KWI) to MindTree for an undisclosed amount.

KWI is a subsidiary of Kyocera Wireless Corp., headquartered in San Diego, California, and is engaged in software development for Kyocera-branded wireless phones for the U.S. market, as well as other research and development activities. MindTree is an IT solutions and software provider in India.

The sale follows Kyocera's 2008 acquisition of the global mobile handset business of Sanyo Electric, in which Kyocera gained approximately 1,700 wireless engineers. In April, Kyocera continued the integration of the former Sanyo team by announcing a global reorganization of its telecommunication equipment business unit, which included the consolidation of wireless engineering efforts in Yokohama, Japan; Daito, Japan; and San Diego, California.

As far as software development is concerned, Kyocera will share its engineering platform among the group by centralizing core technologies in Japan and outsourcing peripheral technologies as appropriate. MindTree will become a strategic vendor for Kyocera, providing engineering resources on an as-needed basis. All of KWI's approximately 600 regular employees will be transferred to MindTree.

Posted to the site on 29th September 2009