Siemens Still Mulls Dropping Mobile Phones

German electronics giant Siemens is still in talks with a number of potential partners about the future of its loss-making mobile handset operations, a company spokesman said on Wednesday, rejecting reports that potential buyers had backed out of a deal. Talks were underway with several candidates and a decision was likely to be reached soon, the spokesman said. In its Wednesday edition, the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had said US mobile phone maker Motorola had pulled out of talks to buy Siemens' mobile handset operations and that no other company was lining up to take over the business. The spokesman declined to comment on the report. Siemens is currently losing around 1.5 million euros ($1.9

million) a day on its mobile phone business, which booked an operating loss of 138 million euros in the three months to March. Siemens, which runs its business year from October to September, sold 9.3 million handsets in the second quarter, down from 12.8 million a year earlier.