Wireless gear-maker Nokia Siemens Networks has received unsolicited investment bids from several private equity firms, according to reports.
The interest comes about a month after NSN said it would seek up to $1 billion in new funding from major private equity companies including Blackstone and TPG. Those two companies are being named in the latest rumors but this time, NSN says, the interest was unsought.
“We don’t need capital. We don’t need to do a deal with private equity," NSN CEO Rajeev Suri told Bloomberg. “But, we would look at it. It can give us some strategic flexibility. We look forward not just to capital, but also to good ideas."
NSN looks a little desperate for “good ideas." The original joint-venture agreement ends in 2013, and even though Suri says Nokia and Siemens plan to keep their majority holds in the company, NSN’s inability to make a profit in its first three years points to a level of skittishness. But an NSN spokesman told Bloomberg “it’s a demonstration of the progress the company is making that we are seen as an investment opportunity."
Suri further emphasized the unsolicited interest has nothing to do with NSN’s purchase of Motorola’s wireless networks assets. NSN already had the money and financing was in place, Suri said. NSN recently bought the Motorola unit to better compete against rivals Ericsson, Huawei Technologies and Alcatel-Lucent but industry observers are skeptical of the deal.
So what’s with NSN’s apparent doubletalk when it comes to private equity investment? That’s unclear.
