According to the arrangement, Arques Industries will acquire an 80.2% stake of Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHO) engaged in manufacturing DECT phones. The deal’s details are unknown, but in the year 2007 the annual income of the department consisting of about 2.100 employees amounted to €792 million.

In 2005 the Siemens Corporation sold their mobile division to the Taiwanese BenQ company for €350 million along with the right of manufacturing phones under the Siemens brand.

Thus, one of the oldest players has left the market. Around 160 years ago the German engineer, scientist and inventor Werner von Siemens together with Johan Halske founded a company called Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske. The partners specialized in electro-telegraphy as well as were engaged in a wide range of works including optics and fine mechanics. In 1853 the company secured an order from Russia to build a telegraph network. In 2 years a telegraph line covered a distance of about 10,000 km stretching from Finland to the Crimea.  In 1909 the company launched the first metropolitan automatic telephone exchange in Germany with a capacity of 2,500 numbers.

At present the concern interests in electrical engineering, electronics, energy, transport, healthcare and lighting engineering as well as in different areas of industry, transportation and communications.