Siemens AG, Germany's largest electronics and electrical engineering company, has told German regulators that it intends to buy the Huntsville electronics plants owned by DaimlerChrysler, Bloomberg News reported this morning.
The purchase would be made by Siemens VDO, the company's automotive unit, which declined to give a timetable for the deal, Bloomberg reported.
Siemens officials did not immediately return calls this morning seeking comment.
The Huntsville plants, which make dashboard and audio electronics, employ about 2,400 people, including 1,700 union workers, at two locations, Jetplex Industrial Park and Cummings Research Park.
The company's notice to regulators provides more details on a sale that has been rumored for more than a year.
In mid-September local United Auto Workers representatives circulated a letter at the Huntsville plants indicating they would be sold to Siemens. At that time, neither firm would comment on the sale.
Chrysler Senior Vice President John Franciosi told Bloomberg News last month the company would sell the Huntsville plants to Siemens.
DaimlerChrysler has said it intends to divest itself of the Huntsville plants and other "non-core" business as part of a plan to stem losses. The automaker lost $1 billion in the second quarter this year.
Last month, the world's fifth-largest automaker said it was considering cutting 4,500 jobs in an attempt to post an operating profit this year.
The United Auto Workers had initially said it would fight the sale of the Huntsville plants. But in September, DaimlerChrysler and the union completed contract negotiations allowing the Huntsville operation and other plants to be sold.
DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Debra Nelson declined to comment on the prospects of the plant sale or if Chrysler would continue to use the products produced by the plants.
But Nelson did say the Huntsville plants "provide a critical product in the automotive community."
