Huawei Sells Its Honor Smartphone Business
Huawei announced today that it is selling its Honor smartphone business to a consortium of 40 companies that will create a new firm.
“Huawei’s consumer business has been under tremendous pressure as of late,” a Huawei statement bluntly notes. “This has been due to a persistent unavailability of technical elements needed for our mobile phone business. Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd. has thus decided to sell all of its Honor business assets to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. This sale will help Honor’s channel sellers and suppliers make it through this difficult time.”
Huawei will have no ownership stake in the new company or play any role in the future of Honor, which is expected to continue as before.
Honor is—or was—Huawei’s brand for low-end and mid-range handsets that target “the youth market.” Huawei firm notes that it sells about 70 million Honor units each year, and that it will continue selling its flagship-class P- and Mate-series handsets.
But the move is just the latest in a long line of setbacks for Huawei in the wake of U.S. sanctions against the company. That said, it did get some good news this week, with some U.S.-based firms, including Qualcomm and Intel, able to now sell it smartphone and PC components again.