German engineering giant Siemens is likely to follow in IBM's footsteps by selling off its mobile phone business to a Chinese company, says the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
The newspaper also reports that Ningbo Bird, the Chinese phone company which distributes Siemens handsets in China, could be the potential buyer.
This comes in the wake of losses to the tune of $187 million that Siemens' mobile phone operations have suffered in the three months till September 30, 2004, the fourth quarter of the company's 2004 in the fiscal year.
The company posted a total sales revenue of $1.65 billion, the same as the year-ago quarter.
The Q4 sales rose 5 per cent year-on-year to $27.52 billion. The net income for the quarter was at $864.1 million.
The newspaper quoted a company spokesman saying that no decision had been made on the mobile phone division's sale, but admitted that the company was 'looking at all the options.'
Last week, IBM sold off its PC division to Chinese computer company Lenovo for $1.75 billion.
