if you'll excuse the intrusion, my first post to the board. if i had to think about it, i guess i'm here via Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) and thought i might tune into the CC. dig a wee bit o' digging, saw this in the Citizen and thought it might interest the board.
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Nortel mulls chip plant for Ottawa region
Would employ 2,000
Bert Hill and James Bagnall
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, October 25, 1999
nationalpost.com
OTTAWA - Nortel Networks Corp. is shopping for land for a major chip design and manufacturing facility in Kanata, Ont., near Ottawa.
Several real estate firms have confirmed the company is considering building a 300,000-square-foot plant to make sophisticated chips used in telecommunications products. The facility would employ more than 2,000 people.
The plant would probably take over semiconductor production from Nortel's 1,300-employee operation in Nepean, Ont.
Merle Nicholds, mayor of Kanata, said through a spokesman she was not in a position to confirm the reports. Nortel spokesman Paul Hornbeck said the company has not made any decisions.
At least four major high-tech companies are looking for land to build about 750,000 square feet of space, including Nokia Oyj and International Business Machines Corp. Entrust Technologies will build a $25-million building in Kanata to house 500 employees by late next year.
Demand and prices are soaring for high-end semiconductor products and suppliers such as Nortel and U.S.-based Lucent Technologies Inc. are trying to capture a bigger share of the market.
In order to retain its position as one of the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications equipment, Nortel chief executive John Roth is attempting to reinvent the company, changing it from a traditional supplier to phone companies into a hybrid that combines the size and reliability of a telecom supplier with the agility and innovation that characterize the new Internet-based data equipment companies. |
