Foxconn, Motorola denies the report regarding selling of handset's business

Motorola Inc., the world's second- biggest handset maker, denied news report regarding its sell of its handset business in China's northern city of Tianjin to a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. The news report published on June 29 saying that Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. (FIH), a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., plans to buy Motorola's handset business in Tianjin, China. However, Mary Lamb, a spokeswoman for Motorola Asia Pacific Ltd. strongly denied the incident and said: "We are selling an idle building in Tianjin and it's just a real estate transaction." US-based Motorola is in talks to sell a factory building in Tianjin after it moved the operations at the plant, which made batteries used in handsets and automotive parts, to another facility, according to Lamb.

However, she declined to name the potential buyers. The news also coincides with the allotted US$19.8 million investment by the headquarter in Taiwan for Foxconn to build a new project in China. Edmund Ding, Foxconn's spokesman stated that the goal of FIH's investment in Tianjin is to be close with its customers. Motorola, which sold more mobile phones in China than any other company from 1999 to 2001, saw its market share fall to 12.1 percent in 2004 that was overtaken by Nokia, the world's No.1 handset maker, according to market researcher Gartner Inc.