Following up on yesterday’s news of Huawei filing suit against Motorola, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order to halt the Nokia Siemens Networks purchase of Motorola’s wireless radio business late last night.
The judge presiding over the case sided with Huawei, which wants to block the purchase over concern that Motorola would sell Huawei’s intellectual property to Nokia Siemens Networks and agreed that the sale would impact the manufacturer negatively, as Huawei and Nokia Siiemens Networks are competitors in the network hardware business.
The judge then stated, “Defendant Motorola [is] hereby ordered not to disclose any of Plaintiff’s confidential information to Defendant Nokia Siemens Networks.”
The judge also ordered both companies to notify Huawei if China’s Ministry of Commerce takes any action regarding the acquisition, since it is the final regulatory body that needs to approve the Motorola-Nokia Siemens Networks transaction based on Motorola’s previous 10 year partnership with Huawei.
