Telecom Equipment News
- Guangdong News
Date: 25-Apr-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
SHENZHEN-BASED Huawei Technologies will set up a joint venture with U.S. security software maker Symantec Corp, a bold return into the US$40 billion network security and data storage sector for China's leading telecom equipment maker.
The two firms are close to finalizing a deal, which could be announced as early as May, a source familiar with the negotiations said, the China Daily said yesterday.
The joint venture would enable Huawei to compete with technology giants Hewlett-Packard, IBM and EMC.
Symantec, meanwhile, best known for its Norton anti-virus programs, has experienced weak revenue growth from its software that helps run corporate data storage centers, a business it acquired in July 2005, when it purchased Veritas Software, a U.S.-based storage software maker, for US$13.5 billion.
For Huawei, the partnership with Symantec marks the company's comeback to the enterprise communications market.
In 2003, privately held Huawei formed a 51-49 joint venture with U.S.-based 3Com, a maker of communications network equipment and software, called H3C. Huawei sold a 2 percent stake in the company to 3Com in 2005 for US$28 million and the remaining 49 percent for US$882 million late last year.
The sale marked Huawei's pull-out of the enterprise communications market. In 2006, however, the firm established a line-up of storage and network security in preparation for a comeback, the industry source said.
The source would not disclose the size of the stake Huawei and Symantec will take in the planned joint venture or how much they will invest.
Shenzhen-headquartered Huawei recorded annual revenue last year of 65.6 billion yuan (US$8.497 billion), with overseas sales accounting for 65 percent.
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