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France’s industrial conglomerate Safran recently announced that it is selling its loss-making mobile handset business, Sagem Mobiles, to French venture capital firm Sofinnova. The disposal would cost Safran 220 million EUR, but it would retain a 10% stake in the new company, which will be known as Sagem Wireless.
Apparently, Safran — which was formed in 2004 via a merger between Sagem and engineering company Snecma — has been looking to spin off Sagem’s handset business for years to refocus on its core aerospace and defense security activities.
Also as part of the agreement, provider of Java in-device engines and mobile services platforms Esmertec will acquire the mobile software platform activities of Sagem Mobiles. Furthermore, they (Esmertec) will provide Sagem Wireless with a mobile software platform and related services for a three-year period — a deal valued at 51 million EUR.
Finally, Purple Labs (where Sofinnova is also an investor), is also involved in the deal. The mobile Linux developer will provide the new company with all the software for its future 3G Linux devices based on LiMo Foundation requirements.
In a conclusion, guess this means we may finally see some decent Sagem mobile phones. Amen to that!
[Via: Reuters]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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