Ericsson wins battle for Nortel assets

Ericsson has won the bidding war for Nortel's CDMA and LTE Access business, after offering $1.13bn for it.

The deal still needs approval from the bankruptcy courts and could also face a legal challenge from Research in Motion. The BlackBerry maker complained last week that it had been unfairly blocked from the auction process. It claimed an offer of $1.1bn was blocked by Nortel because RIM would not agree to promise not to bid for any of the rest of Nortel's business.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson gets skills, patents and existing contracts with US telcos for next generation networks.

Nortel said at least 2,500 of its workers would get the option to move to Ericsson.

Nortel's president and CEO Mike Zafirovski thanked customers for their support and said the firm remained focussed on selling the rest of its businesses.

The US and Canadian courts will sit 28 July to consider the takeover.

The once mighty Canadian giant has been around for over 100 years. It was struggling with big losses even before the credit crunch hit and telcos slashed capital spending. It reaffirmed that shareholders are unlikely to receive anything from the deal.

Nortel's statement is here. ®