Ericsson is putting its wireless microchip business into a joint venture with its Franco-Italian rival STMicroelectronics as the companies look to expand their customer base in the face of slowing mobile phone sales.

The new business, which will be jointly run by the two firms, will be number three in the mobile chip industry behind the US leaders Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Based in Geneva, the as yet unnamed venture will employ nearly 8,000 people in a unit that last year would have generated $3.6bn (£1.9bn) in revenues.

To read this article from The Guardian in full, see www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/21/telecoms.mobilephones.