Nokia Networks to buy Panasonic's base station segment

Nokia Networks has agreed to buy Panasonic’s 3G/LTE base station business, aiming to strengthen its offerings in Japan.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it covers base stations and related wireless equipment for both in terms of fixed assets and business contracts with Panasonic’s customers, which will be transferred to Nokia Networks’ Japan segment. That includes Panasonic employees.
Nokia already has more than 600 employees working in Japan and considers the country to be one of its three strategic markets, including the U.S. and South Korea. It recently made a move to expand its network implementation business in the U.S. with the acquisition of SAC Wireless. 
“Japan is a key market for us, and this agreement is a major milestone in forging closer ties in Japan,” said Ashish Chowdhary, EVP of the Asia, Middle East and Africa market for Nokia Networks (pictured above right), in a statement. “The acquisition of part of Panasonic’s wireless network business would further strengthen our mobile broadband portfolio and add significant value for Japanese operators.”
Nokia Networks’ Japanese mobile operator customers include NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile. The infrastructure vendor said that the Panasonic acquisition will “reinforce and further improve efficiency and quality control for product development and R&D, as well as strengthen its market share for base station systems and related wireless equipment in Japan.”
The two companies expect the agreement to conclude by the end of September and the transaction to be final in January 2015.