Last Friday, Nortel called off a schedule auction of its global Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet businesses. Nortel said it canceled the auction in light of ongoing discussions with interested parties. Qualified bidders are now required to submit offers by November 17, 2009. The Company expects to provide a further update on the auction process and sale of these businesses shortly.
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- In October, Ciena agreed to acquire all of the optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets of Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business for $390 million in cash and 10 million shares of Ciena common stock. Based on the closing price of Ciena's stock on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, the full deal is valued at $521 million. The deal is subject to a competitive bidding process and higher offers could emerge.
- The deal includes Nortel's long-haul optical transport portfolio; metro optical Ethernet switching and transport solutions; Ethernet transport, aggregation and switching technology; multiservice SONET/SDH product families; and network management software products.
