NEC is reportedly to withdraw from the money-losing smartphone business after its deal to give Lenovo a majority stake in its smartphone-making subsidiary fell through, as reported by Japan's Nikkei on July 17. Since late 2012, NEC was in talks with Lenovo to hand over the reins of NEC Casio Mobile Communications Ltd. to the Chinese PC maker. However, the two parties could not reach a consensus on terms of the joint venture. As the deal failed to materialize, NEC considers allocating its resources back to the feature phone portfolio and selling smartphone-related patents, according to the report.