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近日世界500强flextronics集团与美国KKRj集团投资的,全球领先的通信软件公司,aricent(flextronics software system)收购了位于英国的诺基亚-西门子基站研发中心
LONDON — Communications software company Aricenhttp://eetimes.eu/uk/199700813t has bought, for an undisclosed sum, the cellular basestation development group of Nokia Siemens Networks located at Southwood, near Farnborough, England. The company will retain 100 of the software designers working on GSM and EDGE development at the R&D centre.
The move is indicative of the shift to outsourcing many communications research functions both in the wireless and wireline sector. The group at Southwood will initially focus on 2G and 2.5G base station technologies and products.
The Southwood facility was one of Nokia's main development centers in Europe for basestations and infrastructure equipment and became part of Nokia Siemens Networks last year when the two companies merged their wireless infrastructure operations.
The group announced earlier this year it would cut up to 9,000 jobs, mainly in Germany and Finland, over the next year. The cutbacks and rationalization reflected the 'reality of the market', as one NSN manager put it.
Selling the Southwood R&D centre is part of this rationalization.
From a small software development division of Hughes Electronics Corporation created 15 years ago, Aricent, with headquarters in Palo Alto (Calif.) and based mainly in India, has grown into a 6,700-person organization and one of the world's leading independent communications software companies.
Last year, private equity firm KKR bought a majority interest in the company from design and manufacturing outsourcing specialist Flextronics, who still retains a minority stake. The group has offices in the U.S. China, Finland, Germany, Sweden, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Ukraine, and the U.K.
The company says that as well as serving the needs of Nokia Siemens Networks, the Southwood development center will serve other Aricent clients "to deliver critical support in the local market to clients with large wireless product deployments in Europe."
Manoranjan Mohapatra, President and Chief Operating Officer of Aricent said the Southwood development center "gives us a large development presence in a third European location and will allow us to strengthen our co-operation with Nokia Siemens Networks. The collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks builds on a relationship developed with Nokia Networks over six years."
Ari Lehtoranta, head of Radio Access at Nokia Siemens Networks, said Tuesday (May 22) in a statement: "We are confident that this expansion of the Aricent organization will further enable Nokia Siemens Networks to gain access to world class communications software expertise....the customers' expectations are increasing continuously, and we are confident that this collaboration with Aricent will allow us to create industry-leading communications products quickly and efficiently." |
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