SIEMENS HAS broken off talks aimed at finding a partner or buyer for its defence electronics division, saying that it will carry on the business on its own.
Siemens had been negotiating for a year with Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) on a possible joint venture in defence-electronics operations. Talks had also been held with GEC in the UK, which wanted to buy the operation, and with Thomson-CSF.
The German electronics giant says that none of the talks were yielding offers which "met with expectations" or guaranteed a secure future for the division.
Fears had been raised that site closures and heavy job losses could follow the outright sale of the division to a rival defence-electronics group, while the merger talks with DASA, which were expected to be completed in 1994, were seen to be moving too slowly.
Siemens says that it has no immediate plans to restart talks over the division, which had sales of DM1.4 billion ($930 million) in 1994.
DASA also insists that there is "no urgency" for it to start looking for another potential defence electronics partner.
Source: Flight International