Ericsson Wins Hotly Contested Nortel Auction

Gear maker Ericsson (ERIC) won the July 24 auction of Nortel Networks Corp.’s (NT) wireless assets for $1.3 billion, beating out Nokia Siemens Networks and private equity firm MatlinPatterson.

Ericsson and Nortel made the announcement July 25.

The deal gives Sweden-based Ericsson a huge North American presence, as well as a lead in CDMA and LTE technologies and contracts. For example, Ericsson is inheriting contracts with operators including Verizon, Sprint, U.S. Cellular, Bell Canada and Leap Wireless.

Ericsson further has agreed to take on 2,500 Nortel employees; Nortel will try to place the remaining 20 percent of workers in other parts of its company, but there are no guarantees.

Canadian and U.S. bankruptcy courts still must approve the Ericsson takeover of Nortel assets.

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