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BenQ Mobile dismembered

Buyers pale at huge debts

German administrators have given up in their efforts to find a buyer for the cellphone maker BenQ Mobile, which went bankrupt at the tail end of last year. Almost all jobs will go at the former Siemens outfit, which Taiwanese electronics group BenQ picked up in 2005.

BenQ Mobile's insolvency administrator Martin Prager told reporters on Sunday: "From what I can tell there is now no chance of the company being sold as a single entity and relaunched. We have to acknowledge that the market has decided against BenQ Mobile."

Computers, office furniture, building and other material assets are being sold off by a Hamburg auction house to be set against liabilities of $1.16bn.

Dozens of interested parties were reportedly rejected by the creditors 'committee, or shied away from an acquisition when they learned the the scale of the financial troubles afflicting the firm.

The board at BenQ decided to stop bankrolling the business in September, after the company failed to turn the tide against fierce competition from Nokia and a resurgent Motorola, and from cheaper white label handets from the Far East. ®

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