Believe It or Not: Nortel Buys Something

For the first time more than two years, Nortel has made an acquisition by coughing up $26-million for Novera Optics, which makes low-cost, high-performance optical access technology based on WDM-PON (Wavelength Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Network) technology.

Novera sells into markets such as FTTB (Fiber-To-The-Building) and FTTC (Fiber-To-The-Curb) extensions, MxU (Multi-Dwelling and Multi-Tenant Units), RT (Remote Terminals), and the CO (Central Office).

This is the first acquisition made by Nortel since it picked up Tasman Networks in December 2005 for $99-million. It must have been a joy for George Riedel, who was lured away from Juniper Networks in 2006 to make strategic deals.

In March 2006, Novera raised $7.4 million Enterprise Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Octane Capital Management, KTB Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, and Saints Ventures.

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  • Another Nortel Watcher
    I was led to believe that the acquisition was an LG-Nortel play, not a Nortel play. Please clarify.
  • Nortel watcher
    Nice quip on Riedel, I certainly enjoyed it. We shouldn't fault old George considering that just maybe he couldn't work with a $100M budget again to look for strategic fits to Nortel's business and had to make do with $30M only. After all, the 70% reduction is in-line with the share price.

    Maybe Riedel can work on "reverse strategies" by looking for a suitor for Nortel.
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