STMicro, Ericsson lay out plan to close mobile chip unit

STMicroelectronics and Ericsson will close down their mobile chip joint venture ST-Ericsson by dividing up certain product lines and employees and shutting others.

STMicroelectronics and Ericsson will close down their mobile chip joint venture ST-Ericsson by dividing up certain product lines and employees and shutting others.

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Sweden's Ericsson, which manufactures telecom network gear, will keep some 1,800 employees mostly in Sweden, Germany, India and China and the making of LTE multimode thin modem products.

Franco-Italian chip maker STMicro said on Monday it will keep other existing ST-Ericsson products, without providing details, as well as certain assembly and test facilities. It will take on some 950 employees mostly in France and Italy.

The rest of the business, which had 5,000 employees globally before these moves, will be shut down.

STMicro said it expected $350-450 million in cash costs during the process.