Nortel chief steps down

Mike Zafirovski, the president and CEO of Canadian vendor Nortel Networks has announced his resignation from the once mighty firm, effective immediately.

After overseeing the break up of much of the business, Zafirovski said he “believes the company has reached a natural transition point”. The company’s board of directors has also been reduced from nine to three, with the business now considered stable.

Second quarter net loss, driven by reorganisation costs, hit $274m, compared to net loss of $113m in the second quarter of 2008. Revenues for the period declined 25 per cent year on year and 14 per cent quarter on quarter to $1.972bn.

As it prepares to bow out of the telecoms infrastructure business, the firm recently said that Ericsson’s $1.13bn bid for its LTE and CDMA assets has been approved by the US bankruptcy court.

The company also has an offer for its enterprise solutions business from networking firm Avaya to the tune of $475m. The proposed acquisition includes the Nortel Enterprise Solutions voice, data and government systems businesses.

Nortel is expected to offload its 50 per cent stake in joint venture LG Nortel this year, while there is also much speculation about the fate of its LTE patent portfolio.