Swedish telecoms group Ericsson said Monday it has bought the telecom division of a Chinese IT services company, adding 1,000 employees to its payroll less than a week after announcing major redundancies in Sweden.
"The acquisition of Sunrise Technology's telecom business will boost our ability to serve mobile operators' IT transformation needs in China," the group's vice president Magnus Mandersson said in a statement.
"Most of the country's telecom operators ... will soon replace their legacy IT systems with next-generation solutions," he added, highlighting opportunities for growth in the world's largest mobile phone market.
Most of the employees transferred to Ericsson are based in Guangzhou in southern China.
The announcement came just five days after Ericsson announced it was shedding 2,200 jobs in Sweden "mainly in R&D and supply" in order to cut costs.
Last year the group said it would refocus its business on telecom equipment and networks and abandon modems.
Ericsson employs nearly 120,000 people worldwide.
Source: AFP