| Sendo in administration - Motorola buy R&D |
| Written by Stuart Clark | |
| Wednesday, 29 June 2005 | |
|
As reported earlier, Sendo today went into administration. Details
which have recently emerged now confirm that Motorola have bought
Sendo's R&D and IP. Alas, this doesn't necesarilly mean a release
for the Sendo X2 phone. Motorola to Acquire Sendo Research and Development Team and Intellectual Property Portfolio Our friends over at The Enquirer seem to be keeping on top of this
story far quicker than the rest of us, here's their latest update. Approximately 200 engineers, most of those based in the UK and the rest in Singapore, will join Motorola. Sendo has 50 patents and 40 patents pending, and Motorola will get those too. Moto confirmed that today, as we reported in our original story below, that the company went into administration because of "financial pressures". Motorola doesn't buy the larger business of Sendo Ltd, or its manufacturing and supply relationships, capital assets, liabilities or sales offices. What does this mean for X2? Well, while Motorola are a Symbian supporter, they have never developed a Series 60 phone, sticking instead to UIQ for their Symbian offerings. Therefore it's unlikely that Motorola would be interested in developing (or releasing) the Sendo X2 phone. Whether there is still time for the phone to be released as a Sendo product is yet to be seen, however, I suspect it's unlikely to come out unless one of the networks which had previously agreed to take the phone were to take on the full support and warranty of the phone.
Our original story about Sendo entering administration is below: Sendo have officially entered administration today. The following announcement appeared on their website a few minutes ago. The affairs, business and assets of Sendo International Ltd, Sendo Holdings Plc, Sendo Telecommunications Limited
and Sendo Limited are being managed by the Joint Administrators Simon Appell and Alastair Beveridge. The
Joint Administrators act as agents of the companies without personal liability. Earlier rumours had started to spread after The Enquirer posted the following article: UK PHONE firm Sendo has gone into administration, its UK PR representative confirmed today. At press time there were few details of the move. The phone at Sendo's HQ continues to be answered with people speaking at the other end. How its assets will be distributed isn't yet known - it has a number of patents and designs that others would no doubt like. Earlier this week, several UK nationals reported that Sendo might find a buyer. Motorcycle News reported earlier this week that Motorola was interested. Why MC? Because Sendo sponsored the Kawasaki superbike team. What will this mean to us, this website? We will not be shutting this site down (hardware permitting ;)) as a result of this - we intend to stay around and offer help to those who already have a Sendo smartphone and wish to continue using it. We're already taking measures to ensure we can continue to offer the best possible help to the community of Sendo users out there. As ever, more information as we get it. |

