Nokia's proposed with joint venture with Sanyo has been shelved before it even began. Nokie originally announced on February 14th that it would be joining forces with Sanyo to develop CDMA mobile phones, but after "extensive analysis", both companies have decided this wasn't such a good idea after all. Nokia will now begin ramping down its CDMA R&D, and focus only on CDMA in North America, citing the "financially prohibitive CDMA ecosystem" as the main reason. I think that means it's a tough and expensive market to crack!

From the press release:

Nokia announced today that it will not be forming the new CDMA device company with SANYO it preliminarily announced on February 14, 2006. Nokia decided not to pursue its earlier plan as it concluded the terms and conditions of the proposed partnership were not satisfactory and in the best interests of Nokia's long term success. In addition to an already financially prohibitive CDMA ecosystem in general, recent developments may indicate that the CDMA emerging markets business case is looking more challenging.

Moving forward, Nokia intends to selectively participate in key CDMA markets, with special focus on North America. Nokia plans to ramp down its own CDMA R&D and manufacturing by April 2007. Nokia is evaluating opportunities to leverage its existing CDMA product development infrastructure and assets in profitable parts of the business.

"We feel it would not be in our best interests to make an agreement that proved to be less beneficial than originally anticipated," said Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President, Nokia, Mobile Phones. "After exploring all available opportunities and making every effort to create a sustainable CDMA business, this is our only viable option."

The company's preliminary estimate for the planned restructuring charge is EUR 150 million in the third quarter 2006. Nokia expects that the result of the planned restructuring of the CDMA business would have a positive impact on Nokia operating margins.