Nortel Networks
announced Thursday that is has increased its ownership of joint ventures
in Germany and France in a bid to boost its position in building
the European high performance Internet.
In Germany, Nortel Networks upped its ownership of
Nortel Dasa Network Systems GmbH and Co. KG, (Nortel Dasa),
its joint venture with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, from
approximately 50 per cent to 58 per cent.
In France, Nortel Networks increased its 50 per cent stake in
Matra Nortel Communications SAS (MNC), a joint venture with
Aerospatiale Matra, to 55 per cent.
Clarence Chandran, president of the Service Provider and Carrier
Group at Nortel Networks, said the increased ownership in
the two companies underpinned Nortel Networks’ commitment to
delivering high-performance Internet capabilities to carriers,
service providers and enterprises across Europe.
“With today’s announcement Nortel Networks will have a European
workforce of over 20,000, a presence in 33 countries and the
broadest high performance Internet capability,” said Chandran.
Nortel Dasa has been instrumental in winning major contracts
for Nortel Networks in Germany, including a $200 million deal
to act as systems integrator for facilities-based application
service provider EINSTEINet, announced in January.
Nortel Dasa employs 1,450 people in 25 locations in Germany.
The French venture MNC has been similarly successful, winning
contracts with France Telecom for converting data networks
to advanced Internet protocol (IP) networks, and with many
other major firms.
MNC reportedly has a 30 per cent share of the enterprise
solutions market in France.
Worldwide, Nortel Networks serves carrier, service provider
and enterprise customers, and had 1999 revenues of $21.3 billion.