We are all familiar with the reputation of German engineering, thanks to your snooty neighbor who has to drive a BMW and all those V-Dub commercials. (Just kidding about the snootiness.) However, Deutschland is about more than just cars, bratsworth, and hefeweizens. It is also home to such technology firms as Siemens (NYSE:SI), Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT), and EADS.

However, like the rest of the world, German tech firms haven't avoided the recession. Take the case of Siemens.

Known as Europe's largest engineering conglomerate, Siemens released fourth quarter earnings earlier this month, stating it lost 1.06 billion euros ($1.6 billion). This loss is largely due to a 1.63 billion-euro ($2.4 billion) writedown on a telecom venture it half-owns in a joint venture with Nokia (NYSE:NOK). It also announced that it would continue to restructure its business segments. This double whammy helped send Siemens shares down about 10% in the weeks since. So is now the time to jump back into the stock, or should it be avoided like the plague?

On the surface, it appears that Siemens cannot get its act together. Write-downs and restructurings are certainly not the type of news that typically drives stocks higher. Despite this, the business remains positioned in the long run to come out a winner. The "Great Recession" has had its impact on Siemens as seen last quarter. However, long-term investors should overlook these temporary losses and focus attention on Siemens' medical equipment and energy segments, where profits continue to rise.

Siemens competes with companies like General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Philips (NYSE:PHG) in the health-care equipment business, which is currently Siemens' third largest and most profitable segment. This segment should continue to boom in the coming years despite the competition, as the populations of the U.S., Europe, and Japan continues to age. Meanwhile, the energy segment has been breaking ground on nuclear and renewable energy projects across the globe.

For those investors willing to ride out the short-term turbulence, Siemens's health-care equipment and energy businesses offer the potential for serious growth and profits down the road.

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