BRUSSELS, Belgium-The European Commission approved Siemens AG’s plan to offload its mobile-phone operations to Taiwanese electronics company BenQ Corp. The commission said there wouldn’t be any effect on European competition because BenQ will enter the market against such stalwarts as Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
“Although the Siemens mobile-device business has relatively large market shares in some member states, the transaction will not result in a significant increase in market shares, because BenQ is only active to a very minor extent in these markets,” the commission said. “After the proposed merger, BenQ will continue to face competition from strong, well-established competitors in the European economic area market such as Nokia and Samsung.”
Siemens recently announced its plan to give BenQ its ailing mobile-phone business. The move makes BenQ the world’s sixth-largest mobile-phone maker, with operations mainly in Europe and Latin America.
