If and when Motorola decides it wants to sell its handset business entirely, it has a customer waiting. Videocon Industries, a rapidly growing conglomerate based in India, said that it's interested in buying Moto's phone unit.

Motorola last week announced that it would separate its handset and broadband units into two separate companies, a maneuver it expects to complete in 2009 (story here).

"We learnt from a reliable source that they will be selling it, and when they do we are sending an expression of interest," Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot told Reuters.

Videocon is a diversified company that manufactures TVs, household appliances and CRT glass, and it has interests in the oil and gas business. The company's other news today was that it has entered negotiations with the Indian government to establish a semiconductor fab, an LCD plant and solar panel manufacturing facilities, all in accordance with a government incentive program.

Videocon may find Motorola's handset business desirable because Videocon recently won licenses to wireless spectrum in India and owns retail shops that sell, among other things, mobile phones.

India has a growing market for mobile telephony; there were 233 million mobile subscribers as of the end of December.

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