Ericsson has opened discussions with Intel over a minority stake worth hundreds of millions of dollars in their network unit, Bloomberg reported.
The news agency noted discussions were ongoing and may not materialise in a deal, while also highlighting Intel was in discussions with other companies over investing in the unit.
In a statement to Bloomberg Intel did not name Ericsson specifically but said it had started the process of identifying strategic investors in the business.
The future of Intel’s NEX group has been the subject of media speculation for months. Last week, news publication CRN published details of a memo apparently sent by Intel to customers confirming the unit would be spun-off into a standalone business.
Intel’s NEX division makes chips for networking equipment use in the telecoms sector and counts Ericsson among its customers.
Repeated media reports related to the division come as Intel moves to slash costs and streamline its business.
As part of the push it has already agreed a deal to sell a $4.4 billion stake in programmable chip business Altera to Silver Lake and made staff cuts.
In another move to cut outgoings, last week Intel announced its heavily touted manufacturing projects in Germany and Poland would be nixed, alongside consolidating some of its assembly and test operations.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: Ericsson
