Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has sold its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) EuroDocsis customer premises equipment (CPE) business to Taiwan's Compal Broadband Networks, Cable Digital News has learned.

Financial terms of the agreement aren't known yet, but two industry sources confirm that the deal went down, and Moto recently shared the news with resellers. The deal includes access to Moto's standalone Docsis modems as well as its voice-optimized embedded multimedia terminal adapters (EMTAs), and WiFi-enabled broadband gateways.

Motorola, a source notes, began to license its product designs and transfer its EuroDocsis CPE inventory, assets, and sales support responsibilities to Compal Broadband on Jan. 6, 2010. Motorola has been asked for comment, but the company has not yet confirmed any details involving the sale.

But Cable Digital News has learned that, going forward, Compal, a Moto partner for about two years, will be playing point for all sales and support for Moto Docsis CPEs in the EMEA region. Motorola "will continue to receive the original quality of Motorola with the manufacturing economics of scale afforded by Compal," Moto told resellers, according to info obtained by Cable Digital News. That gear will also continue to carry the Moto brand.

Compal Broadband Networks is a fully owned unit of Compal Electronics Inc. , a maker of computer notebooks, TVs, portable media players, cellphones, and other consumer electronics gear.

Although Moto's out of the Docsis CPE sales and support picture in the EMEA region, it "will continue to develop, sell and support Docsis 2.0 and 3.0 CPE directly to our service provider customers in Asia Pacific and the Americas," Moto told EMEA region resellers.

News of the sale comes amid rumors that Motorola is trying to shed its Home & Networks Mobility division, which includes its Docsis equipment biz, for around $4.5 billion. (See Huawei Seen as Likely Moto Suitor and Moto May Be Mulling Set-Top Sale.)

Motorola told resellers it would free up Moto to pursue development of other technologies for the region. "This change is about delivering the ultra-fast broadband experiences your subscribers demand while enabling Motorola to pursue the future technologies that will take your business into the future," the company said.

Motorola is presently the world's largest supplier of Docsis devices. According to the last published "Cable Next-Gen Technology Tracker" from Heavy Reading, Moto shipped 2.68 million Docsis devices in the first quarter of last year, good for a market share of 38.4 percent. Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) was next, with 18.9 percent, followed by Arris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS) (18.8%).

Liberty Global Inc. (Nasdaq: LBTY)'s UPC division is one of the larger MSOs in Europe that buys Docsis CPEs from Moto.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News