At least half of Siemens Mobile will likely be sold after it said it didn't know if it would be able to increase earnings this year after posting losses.
"We thought we could achieve, under certain conditions, another slight rise in (full-year) earnings. Today, this is difficult to assess," Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld said.
Failing to give specifics, Siemens said it was talking to potential partners and would likely only keep a minority share.
"The Siemens mobile-phone brand is also clearly a value," said Kleinfeld. "Today, we can guarantee our customer that mobile phones will continue to be marketed under the Siemens name. All our options clearly entail this."
Henning Dransfeld, research director at consulting firm Ovum said, "We are left guessing-as we have been in the past four months-on how Siemens wants to achieve the turnaround. For the moment, no news is not good news."
The struggling mobile phone unit reported losses of $179 million, selling 9.3 million phones in the quarter
