Ericsson buys Chinese IT firm Sunrise Technology
WASHINGTON – Swedish telecom equipment and infrastructure provider Ericsson announced earlier this week its purchase of the mobile unit of Chinese IT firm Sunrise Technology.
The move adds more than 1,000 Chinese employees to Ericsson’s payroll even as the company moves to cut costs in Sweden.
Ericsson earlier this month announced it is cutting more than 2,200 jobs across Sweden as a cost-saving measure, part of its publicly made goal to save $1 billion by 2017. At the time, Ericsson stated that most of its cutbacks would focus on its research and design, and supply departments.
Ericsson VP Magnus Mandersson said in a statement: “The acquisition of Sunrise Technology’s telecom business will boost our ability to serve mobile operators’ IT transformation needs in China. Most of the country’s telecom operators will soon replace their legacy IT systems with next-generation solutions.”
Most employees transferring into Ericsson are based in Guanngzhou, the capital and largest city of the southern province of Guangdong.
The city’s geographic proximity and economic ties with the special administration regions of Macau and Hong Kong provide ample opportunity for easy access to the Asia Pacific and South East Asia market, as well as sitting at the nexus of one of China’s largest domestic markets.
China is currently leading the charge toward greater telecom profitability with e-commerce services like Alibaba and telecom firms like Tencent increasingly targeting mobile users as a primary source of income. China reportedly now has close to 1.25 billion mobile phone users making its mobile phone market as large as America, Europe and Africa combined.
“The completion of this acquisition significantly strengthens our position in China and shows our commitment to the market,” said Mats Olsson, SVP and head of Asia-Pacific at Ericsson. “The skills and experience of the Sunrise Technology employees will be key for us to continue providing leading services to our customers in China.”
