Nortel divests manufacturing activities to C-MAC

Telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., Brampton, Canada, said earlier today it has divested the majority of its manufacturing activities related to DMS circuit-switching products to electronics manufacturer C-MAC Industries Inc., Montreal.

C-MAC will supply Nortel with systems integration, configuration, and testing services for its DMS circuit-switching products, as well as related supply chain services. These operations are currently performed in-house at Nortel Networks facilities in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Monkstown, Northern Ireland.

As part of the agreement, C-MAC will purchase and transfer most of Nortel Networks' DMS-related manufacturing activities to locations in Creedmoor, N.C., and Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. The transactions include the sale of associated equipment and inventory. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

�By divesting these manufacturing activities to C-MAC, with whom we already have a strong relationship, we are better able to focus our investment and internal resources on core areas that give us competitive differentiation in the marketplace,� said Richard Lowe, Nortel's vice president, Global Customer and Product Operations, in a statement. �Those skills include the rapid introduction, integration, and testing of advanced end-to-end network solutions.�

The North American and European portions of the transaction are expected to be completed in the fourth quarter.

Nortel's systems house in Research Triangle Park will become a �virtual� systems center, working with EMS companies to develop end-to-end supply chains for delivering Nortel Networks Succession voice-over-IP solutions. The Monkstown systems house will continue Nortel's integration and testing of metro optical and optical long-haul networking solutions.