Siemens Wins Billion Euro BBC Contract

German electronics giant Siemens said Friday that its Siemens Business Services unit had signed a €2.7 billion ($3.3 billion) contract to supply technology services to the British Broadcasting Corporation. As part of the 10-and-a-half year contract, Siemens had acquired BBC Technology, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC and taken over about 1,400 BBC Technology employees, the German group said in a statement. The BBC expected to save about €45 million each year over the life of the contract. Siemens Business Services would use the deal as a platform to expand its already well established media business, it said. Under the terms of the deal, Siemens would run and maintain BBCs IT infrastructure including networks, servers, desktops, telephones, broadcast system and the BBC Web site. Siemens would also provide IT consulting, it said.