Nortel Networks Nabs Consulting Firm

With a nod toward strengthening its enterprise and ASP offerings, Nortel Networks Wednesday shelled
out $64.5 million in cash for business strategy consulting firm Dimension
Enterprises Inc.

DEI will help Nortel Networks (NT)
design and engineer Net data centers to house e-business content. Nortel
inked the deal to bolster its Managed Applications Services Initiative,
which was announced last December. The Canada-based company will use DEI’s
technology to enable service providers to produce managed applications
services.

DEI’s strengths include expertise in business strategy consulting, Internet
security, IP networking, operational support systems, enterprise application
integration, and Internet data center design and implementation. The
acquisition supports Nortel Networks’ business strategy to lead the market
in delivering complete solutions for the emerging ASP market.

Industry
analyst group Dataquest said the emerging ASP market will grow to $23
billion by 2003.

“Nortel Networks is now positioned in the ASP market to serve as a prime
technology and services solutions integrator, developing and implementing
business and service plans, designing and building Internet Data Centers
worldwide,” said Richard Caruso, president, ASP market segment, Nortel
Networks.

“By selecting and implementing application solutions and providing systems
integration, we’ll bring together core networks, management systems and data
centers into a single high-performance solution. Dimension employees will
help us implement our recently announced EINSTEINet ASP initiative in
Germany.”

The acquisition is the latest by Nortel Networks, which recently acquired Qtera Corp. and Promatory Communications to build its
host of enterprise services.