Nortel in Talks to Buy ECI's Optical Unit, TheMarker.com Says
By Joshua Mitnick
Tel Aviv, March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Nortel Networks Corp., the world's largest maker of fiber-optic equipment, is negotiating to buy ECI Telecom Ltd.'s optical-equipment unit in a transaction worth $600 million to $800 million, TheMarker.com reported, without citing a source.
Toronto-based Nortel sent a 30-person delegation to ECI's headquarters in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petach Tikvah last week to start an initial check of unit Lightscape's operations.
Officials from ECI, which is controlled by Israeli holding company Koor Industries Ltd., couldn't be reached for comment.
Lightscape, which employs about 700 people, was recently valued at about $900 million by U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, an investment bank, said Israeli finance news web site TheMarker.com. That's down from last year's valuations of $2 billion to $3 billion.
The report boosted Koor's Tel Aviv shares by 2.7 percent after an initial drop of 5 percent. ECI, whose entire market value was $721 million at the end of trading yesterday, is listed only in the U.S. Lightscape is wholly owned by ECI.
(TheMarker.com, 3/21) |
