Another one bites dust in handset market
Sendo, the British based handset developer and manufacturer has gone into administration today. 170 employees in its design and test division will be transferred to Motorola which has bought teh R&D business, but 30 employees, mainly in sales and marketing, will be made redundant.
The Birmingham-based group manufactured and distributed mobile phones to Network Operators around the world. The latest figures available for Sendo International Ltd, and Sendo Limited showed a turnover of £50m and £80m respectively.
A statement from the group said, “The appointment of Joint Administrators has been necessary due to cashflow difficulties. The mobile manufacturing market is a particularly competitive sector with tight margins and this has impacted on the Group.”
Simon Appell of administrator Kroll’s Corporate Advisory and Restructuring Group, said, “Sendo grew into a global company in six years in a very competitive market place and played a significant part in the development of mobile phone technology, however it has struggled due to the nature of the competitive environment it operated in.
“While it is unfortunate that it is has not been possible to save the companies, we are pleased that we have been able to transfer the majority of the UK based employees, who have valuable skills and knowledge of the sector, to Motorola Inc. We are contacting all employees to inform them of their and the businesses’ position.”
It turns out Sendo has been looking for a buyer for some time before going into administration.