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US vendor Motorola is believed to be interested in Siemens’ mobile division, according to a report in Germany’s Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper over the weekend.

Motorola is reportedly eyeing the German vendor’s profitable mobile division, however Siemens is only believed to be considering offers for its entire Com unit, which includes a number of loss making fixed line activities. Finnish firm Nokia is also rumoured to have expressed an interest in the unit.

Pressure has been mounting on the German vendor to spin off its Information and Communications unit, which in February reported a 13 per cent drop in profits.

The drop, from Euro372m (US $451m) in the three months to the end-December 2004, to Euro323m during the same period in 2005, has prompted shareholders to ask tough questions on the future of the unit.

Shareholder’s calls for the unit to be spun off were bolstered by the banking sector which anticipates the Com unit having a higher value if it is taken out of the Siemens group.

Siemens has acknowledged that the division is still some way off the margin targets set for it by Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld through 2007.

Siemens’ reluctance to part with the networks division may also be explained by its recent exit from the mobile handset space.

In June 2005 the company reached an agreement to sell its struggling handset business to Taiwanese manufacturer BenQ. The transaction saw Siemens acquire new shares in BenQ, worth Euro50m, or around 2.5% of the parent company.

Dan Bieler, analyst with Ovum noted: “Ever since Klaus Kleinfeld became CEO of Siemens, there have been plenty of rumours about a partial sale of the Com division.

“So, are these rumours credible? Some financial analysts we have spoken to already view the Com division as separate from the rest of Siemens. They attribute relatively low values to the Com division in relation to Siemens group. Moreover, with sales of about Eur13bn, even a complete sale of Com looks possible from a pricing perspective, given the sort of deals seen in the ICT segment in recent months.”

The question now is, “which company is prepared to take on “problem” divisions to get its hands on the nice bits,” Bieler said. The Com unit also has 55,000 staff, many of whom are thought to be on relatively employee friendly contracts.