Ericsson takes Nortel's GSM business

The carcass of fallen Canadian giant Nortel continues to be picked over, with Swedish vendor Ericsson announcing that it has acquired the certain assets of the Carrier Networks division of Nortel relating to the GSM business in the US and Canada.

Ericsson will pay $70m for the assets, which were won through an auction. Ericsson’s bid for Nortel’s GSM assets was made together with Austrian carrier and enterprise services firm Kapsch CarrierCom, with Ericsson acquiring Nortel’s GSM business in North America while Kapsch is paying $33m to acquire most of the remaining assets, including the GSM-R business, outside North America.

Under the deal, Ericsson will acquire Nortel’s GSM business with North American operators such as AT&T and T-Mobile and will offer employment to approximately 350 employees from Nortel.

“Along with our recent acquisition of Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets, the transaction emphasizes Ericsson’s commitment to the North American market and strengthens our position as a leading provider of telecommunications technology and services in the United States and Canada,” said Hans Vestberg, incoming president and CEO of Ericsson.

In September, Ericsson won out with a $1.13bn bid for all of Nortel’s CDMA business and LTE Access assets.