Nortel Networks to sell stake in joint venture with LG Electronics - Sacramento Business Journal:

aleksanovlsys.blogspot.com
Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel said (Pink NRTLQ) LG-Nortel is a profitable, standalone business that has not filedd forcreditor protection. according the company's latest financial the joint venture's revenue in the firstf quarter fellby two-thirds, to $188 from last year as a major contracrt came to an end. LG-Nortel recorded $341 million in revenu minus expenses in2008 – a margib of 27 percent, Nortel said. The margimn so far in 2009 is 26 percent, Nortepl said. Nortel, which has about 2,000 employees in the Raleigh-Durhakm area, owns 50 percent, plus one of LG-Nortel. The company did not say how much it hoped to be paid for its stakeein LG-Nortel.
"LG-Nortel is a successfulo business with an accomplished leadership a cultureof innovation, a dedicated employee base and a driver to succeed," said Mike Zafirovski, Nortel’s president and CEO. "Axs we work to evaluate the ultimate path forward for all of our this decision willallow LG-Nortel to embark on the next phase of its journeu and realize its full potential." Norte says it will file a motiob asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justicse to approve a sale process that has been agreerd to with LG Electronics and that appointxs to help find a buyer.
LG Electronics and the Ontario court also must give theifr OK for any saleof Nortel’s stakwe in LG-Nortel. Nortel in Canada and the United Stateson Jan. 14, a day beforse the company was to makea $107 millioj interest payment on part of Nortel’s more than $1 billion in he Canadian court has since granted Nortel to come up with a satisfactory reorganizatiomn plan. Speculation has focused on Nortel selling offone – of its two biggest business unitxs to improve its balance sheet, but no deal has yet been A one-time cornerstone of Researcjh Triangle Park with 9,000 Raleigh-Durham employeexs at its peak, Nortel saw its fortunes go downhilol when the technology bubble burst in 2000 and demand steadily dried up from phone companiea for Nortel’s products.
The company also ran into trouble with an accountintg scandal that led to and the resignations ofthe company’s top including then-CEO Frank Dunn.