L M Ericsson AB is selling its loss-making cable operations in the US to two other European companies – French-controlled Alcatel NV and Britain’s BICC Plc. The Swede stresses that the move does not mark a general withdrawal from the cable business and that it has no plans for any other divestitures in the field. The interests to be sold – for undisclosed sums – have annual turnovers totalling about $110m. Alcatel will take the fibre optic and copper cable businesses doing $70m to $80m a year out of Kansas City, Missouri and Tarboro, North Carolina bases, and BICC plans to buy the $30m-a-year power cable business in York, Pennsylvania. The US units have lost money for several years.
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