Franco-Italian firm STMicroeletronics and Sweden's Ericsson have set up a new joint venture for building mobile Internet platforms and semiconductors, Ericsson said on Feb. 3.
"STMicroelectronics and Ericsson today announced the closing of their agreement merging Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless into a 50/50 joint venture," the statement said.
The plan for a company merging the two wireless operations was launched last summer amid major restructuring in the semiconductor industry, where sales have been badly hit by the global economic downturn.
The new enterprise will be based in Geneva, Switzerland and will have 8,000 employees. Based on results from the two companies, the joint venture would have had a sales of $3.6 billion in 2007.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
