According to a new report, Samsung might acquire Nokia's mobile network infrastructure business. It was recently reported that Nokia and Samsung are in talks about selling the former's mobile network business group to the latter. If this happens, Samsung will become a major player in the global network infrastructure business.
With the acquisition of Nokia's mobile network business, Samsung could become a major global player
According to a Bloomberg report (published in Yahoo Business), Samsung has shown interest in acquiring Nokia's telecom equipment business. Nokia has struggled to compete with major players like Ericsson and Huawei over the past few years. So, the company discussed all the possible options with its advisors, which included selling some or all of the division or merging with one of its rivals.
While Nokia hasn't made a decision yet, its telecom equipment business is reportedly worth $10 billion. Samsung Electronics has shown interest in the acquisition to improve its Radio Access Network (RAN) segment. RAN helps connect smartphones to the rest of the telecom infrastructure.
Samsung Networks, an arm of Samsung Electronics, is among the world's top telecom network infrastructure firms but still nowhere close to Ericsson and Huawei. If it successfully acquires Nokia's mobile network business, Samsung's RAN market share would leapfrog from 6.1% last year to 25.6%. That would make Samsung the world's second-biggest RAN supplier.
Samsung already makes 4G and 5G base stations, chipsets, devices, radios, and core equipment. It has supplied equipment to mobile network firms worldwide, including Telus in Canada, O2 Telefónica in Germany, Reliance Jio in India, KDDI and NTT DoCoMo in Japan, Dish and Verizon in the US, and Vodafone in the UK.
