Ericsson has completed its acquisition of substantially all of Nortel’s CDMA business and LTE assets in North America.
The acquisition closing follows its previous announcement, that Ericsson was entering into an asset purchase agreement of $1.13 billion for these assets, subject to approval by the US and Canadian Bankruptcy Courts and the satisfaction of regulatory and other conditions.
The acquisition includes the transfer of CDMA contracts with North American operators including Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, Bell Canada, Telus and Leap, as well as LTE assets, certain patents and patent licenses relating to CDMA and LTE.
The results for these operations will be consolidated by Ericsson on a pro-rata basis from the closing date proportionally within segments networks and professional services. The report for the fourth quarter 2009 will be the first accounts including the new entity, Ericsson said.
Reportedly, former Nortel staff will be integrated into the Ericsson group over the coming months and the entity will work under the Ericsson brand. Combined with the transition of employees in the recent Sprint deal, Ericsson now has some 14,000 employees in North America.
Hans Vestberg, incoming president and chief executive officer of Ericsson, said: Separately, our two companies played leading roles in freeing voice telephony from its fixed limitations. Together, we will do the same for broadband – make it mobile and bring the benefits of high-speed data connectivity to the majority of the world’s population. This deal, along with our recently announced services and LTE agreements, demonstrates the importance of the North American market to Ericsson.
