Alcatel shook off the last of its mobile-phone operations by selling its stake in the mobile-phone joint venture it formed last year with Chinese electronics company TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd.
TCL announced it would acquire Alcatel’s 45-percent stake in TCL and Alcatel Mobile Phones SAS in an exchange of shares. The joint venture will be folded into TCL’s handset operations.
TCL and Alcatel announced their joint venture last year. Alcatel contributed $53 million to the new venture, while TCL invested $65 million.
Many saw the joint venture as Alcatel’s first move to exit the handset market. The company had largely failed to take advantage of the growing handset market. However, the joint venture too has suffered losses; it lost $33 million last year, according to research and consulting firm Ovum.
“The price for exiting the mobile handset business could seem high for Alcatel,” said Ovum analyst Julien Grivolas, “but the loss-making activities coupled with a limited market share worldwide were clearly not appealing.”
