Inside the Nortel-Nokia Siemens Deal

Nokia (NOK) Siemens Networks negotiated a shrewd $650 million agreement to buy the crown jewel of the bankrupt Nortel (NT) Networks–the shrinking, but highly profitable voice-only wireless technology called CDMA–together with an R&D group developing systems to upgrade carrier networks to ultra-broadband speeds.

After months of negotiations in Munich, Toronto, Dallas and New York, and a tense final day in the offices of the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, the companies signed a deal late Friday. The timing was somewhat unfortunate for Nortel. It believed it had to announce the deal quickly, along with its decision to wind down its business by selling off its assets and delisting its shares, to comply with the rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange but feared the announcement would be seen as if it were trying to bury the news.

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