Huawei announces its plan to sell Honor phone business

Huawei has announced its plans to sell Honor, its mid-range smartphone business, to younger customers. Huawei reports that the decision “has been taken by the industry chain of Honor to ensure its own sustainability,” following “significant strain” and a continuing shortage of technological elements available for our cell phone sector”

According to a joint statement from 40 of the businesses participating in the acquisition, Honor is being sold to a group of over 30 agents and dealers. The group consists mainly of agencies funded by the government, such as the Shenzhen Smart City Planning Group and China Telecom. That certainly won’t please U.S. authorities, who initially went after Huawei on behalf of the Chinese government for its alleged hacking, but being independent from Huawei may be enough to sway officials. For Honor, Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, the transaction would create an entirely new company, with Huawei having no equity or ownership.

Honor goods still rely heavily on Huawei’s own technologies, but the firm was similarly harmed by US sanctions that prohibited the company from doing business with American businesses. For instance, the V30 line of phones utilises the same Kirin 990 processor that powers the P40 flagship devices. Honor may have greater freedom to grow its products under new management, eventually being able to negotiate with Qualcomm and Google like it.