ESPOO, Finland-In Nokia’s continued push to focus on new product development, the company has sold its monitor manufacturing unit in Pecs, Hungary, to Elcoteq Network Corp.
The deal, announced by Nokia, follows the company’s earlier disclosure that its display manufacturing plant in Salo, Finland, will close, and the Nokia Display Products’ manufacturing plant in Reynosa, Mexico, will discontinue production in phases.
Nokia’s newly formed Mobile Display Appliances unit will focus on the development of entire new display devices that will enable Internet-based, visually rich communications in the mobile environment, according to the company.
“The development is a logical step in Nokia’s continuous focus on its core competencies,” said Reijo Lantto, president of Nokia Display Products. “Nokia has become the leader in mobile Internet technologies and the fast developments in this area offer us new opportunities to serve the emerging digital industry. Nokia’s display sales will continue to supplement our wide product offering for corporate customers and the new Nokia Mobile Display Appliances unit will contribute to Nokia’s strategy to combine the Internet and mobility by using devices with high-quality displays.”
Elcoteq, which opened a display plant in Pecs in 1998, will use the new acquisition to manufacture monitors for Nokia, as well as to increase the company’s ability to serve continental European markets.
“This acquisition will help Elcoteq meet its growing customer demand for electronics manufacturing services, including mobile phone customers,” said Tuomo Lahdesmaki, president of Elcoteq. “We recently announced that we will shortly initiate box build mobile phone manufacturing projects in our existing plant in Pecs. We welcome the addition of the highly skilled Nokia Display Products’ employees in Pecs to join Elcoteq. The timely acquisition serves to strengthen our skills and increase manufacturing capacity.”
Nokia’s plant in Pecs is 30,000 square meters and employees 1,400 people. Financial details of the acquisition were not released.
