The bankrupt German handset business of Taiwan's BenQ will be split up and sold, its insolvency administrator said Saturday. "There is no longer a realistic chance of it being sold as a whole," spokesman Martin Prager said, confirming a report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Munich-based BenQ Mobile filed for insolvency protection in September, a year after the Taiwanese firm took over the struggling unit from Siemens AG and began an unsuccessful bid to turn it around.

Once among the world's top three phone brands, the handset maker first stumbled under Siemens and then collapsed under Benq because both owners failed to compete effectively with rivals such as Nokia or Sony Ericsson.

The last production of mobile phones, with about 160 remaining employees, ended Jan. 31. Thirty employees are handling the liquidation of the company. About 2,300 employees in Munich and Kamp-Lintfort moved to two transfer companies at the beginning of the year, Prager said.