NEW YORK (AP) - Motorola Solutions Inc. on Wednesday said it has settled with Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies, which objected to the sale of a Motorola unit. That means the sale could close soon, but at a lower price than originally envisioned.
Motorola Solutions, one half of the former Motorola Inc., which broke up in January, said it will be getting $975 million for the sale of its network equipment unit to Nokia Siemens Networks, rather than the $1.2 billion promised when the deal was struck in July.
Motorola Solutions, which makes police radios, bar-code scanners and other products aimed at corporations and governments, didn’t say why the sale price was reduced, but the deal was originally set to close before the end of 2010.
It was stalled by Huawei, which won an injunction in U.S. court saying the deal could mean that its business secrets would end up in Nokia Siemens hands, since Motorola resold Huawei equipment starting in 2000.
In the settlement announced Wednesday, Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Solutions will pay Huawei an undisclosed fee to transfer its contracts to Nokia Siemens. The deal allows Nokia Siemens to use confidential Huawei information to service the networks that Motorola deployed worldwide using Huawei’s technologies, the companies said.
Motorola Solutions spokesman Nick Sweers said the sale of the unit to Nokia Siemens still needs approval from Chinese antitrust authorities. If they give approval, the deal is set to close on April 29.
Nokia Siemens Networks is the network equipment-making joint venture of Nokia Corp. of Finland and Siemens AG of Germany.
Motorola Solutions shares rose 30 cents to $44.15 in midday trading Wednesday.
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