New BenQ, Siemens mobile phone company opens

There’s a new mobile phone maker aiming to compete with the likes of Motorola and Nokia: BenQ Mobile. The new company opened for business on Saturday and was formed as a result of Taiwanese mobile phone maker BenQ’s acquisition of Siemens’ mobile devices division in June.

The Munich, Germany-based company opens led by a German chief executive officer, Clemens Joos, and a Taiwanese chairman, Jerry Wang, BenQ said in a statement.

Joos, president of Siemens’ mobile devices division since 2004 , and Wang, an executive vice president at BenQ, have their work cut out for them. Siemens’ share of worldwide mobile phone sales has been falling all year, and it posted a loss for the first half of this year. Meanwhile, BenQ faces its own troubles. The company’s switch to focusing on brand name products caused longtime customers for its mobile phone contract manufacturing services to find new partners.

But executives at both companies hope the combined operations, with 7,000 staff, $5.6 billion in revenue and operations in places ranging from Aalborg, Denmark to Suzhou, China, turns their fortunes around.

BenQ Mobile opens with a 5.2 percent of combined global market share, the company estimates, and a No. 6 position in the global handset market.

The Siemens mobile phone brand will continue to exist for another 18 months and the company will be able to cobrand products under the BenQ-Siemens name for a five-year period that started on Saturday. Products using the new, combined brand name will be introduced in the spring of 2006, BenQ said in a statement.

The choice of Joos as CEO follows a trend by Asian companies to tap Westerners for top positions after mergers or acquisitions, as Lenovo Group did after purchasing IBM’s computer division.

Joos has some experience in Asia to help smooth cultural transitions within the company. In 1996, he was sent to head up Siemens’ Malaysian operations, and was promoted to director of sales and marketing in the Asia Pacific region in 1998, a Singapore-based position.

In June, BenQ struck a deal to take over Siemens’ loss-making handset division and try to turn it around. Siemens said it would pay BenQ €250 million ($301 million) to take over the business and get the new venture off on a solid footing.