Ericsson to buy Nokia Siemens unit?

Ericsson is recently being considered to be in pole position to buy the business support systems (BSS) unit of rival Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Dow Jones Newswires reported on Monday.

In addition to Ericsson, U.S. telecoms equipment maker Amdocs is also interested in the BSS unit, which provides billing and charging systems for telecoms operators, Dow Jones quoted a source familiar with the matter saying.

According to media reports, the unit was among assets NSN was considering selling, but could not confirm a deal was imminent.

 NSN is in the middle of a slimming program that will also cut 17,000 of the group's workforce - or almost a quarter of the total - in an effort to improve its finances.

Sweden-based Ericsson has been expanding rapidly in BSS and operations support systems (OSS), last year buying Telcordia in the United States for $1.1 billion.

 A recent survey by consultancy Gartner ranked Ericsson top globally by revenues in OSS and BSS services, including sales acquired with Telcordia.

NSN made a profit of 27 million euros on a non-IFRS basis in the second quarter on sales of 3.3 billion.