Nortel aims for break-up after NSN deal

Nortel Networks, following the announcement Friday that it will sell its CDMA and LTE unit to Nokia Siemens Networks for $650 million, confirmed this weekend that it is seeking to sell other units as part of a corporate break-up plan, rather than attempt to emerging from bankruptcy protection as a going concern. Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski is quoted in the Financial Times as saying that this was not Nortel's original intention, but that the company now "lacked the scale to compete" against the mega-vendors of today, NSN being just one example.

Zafirovski painted a picture of a company that was unable to close acquisition opportunities that might have propelled it into that larger class of vendors, and thus was hit especially hard when many carriers cut spending last year. Remaining Nortel businesses, including the wireline-side, enterprise-focused operations, metro Ethernet networking operations and its LG Nortel joint venture, will be sold and already have drawn several potential buyers.

There likely will be further details coming later this week on Nortel's plans, but it appears the days of the storied firm are growing short. We encourage Nortel employees and former employees to post their thoughts about the company in our comment section.

For more:
- The Financial Times has this story

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