EuroLinks Daily View: Siemens Faces New Hurdles Even as It Unveils Deals
The 6% drop in German conglomerate Siemens AG's share price Wednesday, as well as the disclosure of more suspicious transactions found in a continuing bribery probe, underscored the challenges that new Chief Executive Peter Loscher faces as he tries to turn around and streamline the company as it launched a major round of restructuring involving deals valued at more than $22 billion.</br></br>As Mike Esterl and David Crawford report, the terms of one deal and heavy losses in a telecommunications joint venture prompted doubts by investors. It says it will sell its VDO auto-parts unit to German rival Continental AG for $15.75 billion and acquire Dade Behring Inc., a U.S. clinical-diagnostics company, for about $7 billion. The deals are part of Siemens's effort to sharpen the focus of its businesses.</br></br>But Siemens also disclosed a heavy loss in its telecommunications- equipment joint venture with Nokia Corp., as well as a sharp rise in the number of suspicious transactions it has uncovered as part of the companywide probe into alleged bribery. A weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings report and investor concerns that Siemens paid too high a price for Dade slammed the brakes on a months-long rally in the company's share price.</br></br>Read our report by Mike Esterl in Frankfurt and David Crawford in Berlin: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118536749155177499.html</br></br>Read Breakingviews' analysis: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118540259102878128.html