Nokia Siemens’ acquisition of Motorola Solutions is back on, but only after the firm cut the purchase price by $225 million to account for the settlement of a Huawei lawsuit against the pair in the US.
The European vendor has agreed a new price of $975 million for Motorola Solutions’ network assets following the agreement with Huawei, and expects the deal to complete on April 29 provided Chinese regulators give it the green light. The lower price covers additional costs associated with licensing fees for Huawei IP that was included in Motorola’s assets under previous commercial agreements.
Huawei moved to block the sale in January, winning a temporary injunction to allow US authorities to assess what patents were included in the transaction.
The vendor claimed it would suffer significant commercial harm if its technology fell into the hands of rival NSN, while the European firm conceded the deal was worthless without the disputed IP.
The Chinese firm agreed to drop its block after Motorola Solutions dropped a separate lawsuit in the US, in which Huawei was named as a defendant.
Nokia Siemens has twice delayed the closing of the acquisition due to lack of clearance by Chinese competition authorities. While that approval is still pending, China’s stance towards the deal could be softened by the Huawei agreement.
NSN spokesman Ben Roome told TelecomAsia the acquisition will “significantly strengthen our global presences, particularly in the US and Japan.”