Marconi breaks into China

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 31 Jan 2005 10:06

The once mighty telecoms player Marconi continued its rehabilitation today with an announcement that will give it a foothold in the 21st century’s most exciting market.

The corporation announced that it has reached an agreement with Huawei Technologies, headquartered in Shenzhen, China, regarding ways in which the two companies will work together. Discussions between the two companies have focussed on a mutual distribution agreement that would see each company sell certain products from the other's product portfolio into their respective customers. The two companies have also discussed how Marconi can use its extensive services structure to support Huawei's pursuit of equipment business in the European market.

Marconi will distribute certain of Huawei's carrier grade data products into its key customers. Huawei will distribute Marconi's next-generation access radio products into its key customers.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed and working groups have been formed by both companies, with a view to being in a position to sign a more definitive agreement before Marconi's financial year-end in March 2005.

Mike Parton, Chief Executive Officer of Marconi, said: "This is an important first step in what we believe will be a long and mutually beneficial working partnership. Both companies have excellent technology and strong customer relationships that can be leveraged to sell products from our respective product portfolios. We will sell Huawei's products that complement our own, and which we will support through our strong service offering."

At Huawei, CEO Ren Zhengfei said: "We are very glad to co-operate with Marconi. The co-operation is dedicated to bringing customers greater benefits by combining both sides' strengths in the telecommunications industry. We are looking forward to working closely with Marconi and expecting a win-win outlook for the co-operation."

Discussions are continuing regarding a joint product development agreement that will see the two companies derive benefits from the sharing of R&D resource and technologies.

"The next stage of our relationship will be to develop jointly new products that would then be sold through our mutual distribution channels," added Parton.

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