Nortel will make more acquisitions but not Reseach In Motion
ATT deak worth "big dollars" over many years.
Nortel signs up another wireless client
TORONTO (Reuters) - Communications gear maker Nortel Networks Corp. chalked up another win for its wireless unit Friday, continuing its effort to reverse its poor wireless showing earlier this year.
U.S. phone giant AT&T Corp. said it planned to buy more infrastructure equipment and services from Canada's Nortel, one of the world's biggest equipment suppliers, and Nortel's U.S. rival Lucent Technologies Inc.
John Roth, chief executive for the Brampton, Ontario-based company, would not disclose how much Nortel might earn from the agreement but said it was worth "big dollars" over many years.
Nortel has signed more than $4 billion in wireless equipment contracts since the beginning of the year,
Roth added. "This just adds to our momentum."
One analyst, who declined to be identified, noted that Nortel has experienced some setbacks in its efforts to expand its slice of the exploding mobile phone gear industry. "I think it shows that Nortel's wireless business is rebounding," he said, adding he thinks Nortel's growth rate in that area is about 15 percent.
Another unidentified analyst pointed out that Nortel was still lagging its rivals. "It's interesting. They need the wireless because they're growing at half the rate of their competitors."
Roth also said that the company, perpetually on the lookout to fill in the holes in its equipment line-up, would make some more acquisitions roughly the size of this week's deal with voice products maker Periphonics Corp. , worth $436 million.
"We've always got a few that are underway," Roth noted.
The first analyst said that "they still seem to be on a plan to fill in the gaps in their product line."
Roth quashed a report that Nortel was looking to take a minority stake in hot-to-trot company Research In Motion Ltd. , which makes e-mail pagers.
"I don't know why I'd do that," Roth said, adding that the company got out of handsets in the last little while.
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