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Ericsson moves on APAC with Sunrise acquisition

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.”

ABOUT AUTHOR

Jeff Hawn
Jeff Hawn
Contributing Writerjhawn@rcrwireless.com Jeff Hawn was born in 1991 and represents the “millennial generation,” the people who have spent their entire lives wired and wireless. His adult life has revolved around cellphones, the Internet, video chat and Google. Hawn has a degree in international relations from American University, and has lived and traveled extensively throughout Europe and Russia. He represents the most valuable, but most discerning, market for wireless companies: the people who have never lived without their products, but are fickle and flighty in their loyalty to one company or product. He’ll be sharing his views – and to a certain extent the views of his generation – with RCR Wireless News readers, hoping to bridge the generational divide and let the decision makers know what’s on the mind of this demographic.