The company behind French manufacturer Sagem will stick to white-label manufacturing and effectively pull the brand from the market following the £172m buy-out of the company earlier this month, Mobile understands.

However, Sagem couldn’t confirm or deny this as Mobile went to press.
Previous owner Safran sold the company to venture capitalists firm Sofinnova, but Safran retained a 10% share of Sagem, which is set to become Sagem Wireless at the end of 2008.

The new company will develop and market products under other brand names, and on behalf of operators or other manufacturers, as well as for fashion, sports and luxury companies.

Sagem already has large contracts with Sony Ericsson and Vodafone to make low-end phones under their customers’ brands.