Ericsson decided to divest its mobile phone business in 2001 following huge losses. Ericsson had decided to source chips for its phones from a single source, a Philips facility in New Mexico . In March 2000 a fire at the Philips factory contaminated the sterile facility. Philips assured Ericsson and Nokia (the other major customer of the facility) that production would be delayed by less than a week. Nokia began buying available chips from alternate sources and when it became clear that production at the Philips factory would be compromised for months, Ericsson was faced with a serious shortage. This compromised Ericsson's ability to compete by preventing the launch of new handsets and production of current models.