Nortel continues to shed assets

Troubled Canadian kit vendor Nortel continues to shed assets from the safe haven of bankruptcy protection.

On Friday, as the rest of the telecoms world is shaking off the hangover of Mobile World Congress, Nortel struck a deal with kit manufacturer Radware, to offload elements of its application delivery portfolio.

Under the agreement, the products that are planned to be acquired by Radware include Application Accelerators 510 and 610; Application Switches (NAS) 3408E, 2424E, 2424 SSL E, 2216E, 2208E; and the Virtual Services Switch (VSS) 5000.

“We initiated discussions with Radware in late 2008, as part of our efforts to streamline investments around our future direction to speed and simplify business communications. Moving forward, Radware and Nortel will work together to ensure the transition is seamless to our customers,” said Joel Hackney, president of enterprise solutions at Nortel. “We remain focused on our Enterprise business to deliver our industry-leading networking infrastructure that comprises our end-to-end Unified Communications solutions, including real time and wireless networking capabilities, services, security and integrated applications.”

Under the terms of the purchase agreement, while Radware would assume ownership, product development and outstanding warrantees, the products would still be available and promoted by Nortel in an OEM relationship with Radware.

Nortel, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-January 2009, recently came under fire from WiMAX partner Alvarion, which was forced to write off $2.4m in lost equipment sales in its Q4 2008 results. The Israeli supplier had shipped the WiMAX equipment to Nortel as part of the two firms’ partnership, but Nortel’s Chapter 11 move means – the company says – that Alvarion won’t get its dues without a struggle.