Philips Electronics NV has exited or been driven out of more businesses than most companies have ever been in – mainframes, small business computers, personal computers, telephone exchanges for four – and now it is getting out of the public telecommunications equipment business, selling the Cellular Infrastructure Systems, Managed Transport Networks, Microwave Transmission & Access, and Transmission businesses to AT&T Corp on undisclosed terms. They represent two thirds of the loss-making Philips Kommunikations Industrie AG of Germany and around half of Telecommunications Radioelectriques et Telephones SA in France – which is also loss-making. No terms were given. Philips will now concentrate on cellular and cordless phones, facsimile machines, pagers, and PABXes.
