The sale is subject to court approvals in the U.S. and Canada, which Nortel will seek at a joint hearing on December 2, 2009, and in France and Israel. The sale is also subject to certain regulatory approvals. U.S. and Canadian antitrust clearance for the sale has already been obtained.
If approved by the courts, Ciena's purchase will include substantially all product platforms, patents and intellectual property that are predominantly used in the businesses, and provides for the transition of substantially all of Nortel's Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet customer contracts to Ciena.
A minimum of 2,000 Nortel employees will receive offers of employment from Ciena, which currently represents more than 85 percent of the global Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet employee base. This includes those employees assigned to the Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet businesses in certain EMEA jurisdictions who will transfer automatically to Ciena by operation of law.
"Uniting our two optical businesses is a game changing event for the optical industry, creating a leader that has the end-to-end portfolio, industry innovation leadership, and significant global customer base to succeed in today's highly competitive market," said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel. "Ciena's commitment to the future of our product platforms, customers and employees represents an exceptionally positive outcome to a challenging journey that started over a year ago. Our employees have always been the core value of our business, and their ability to continue to innovate as part of a global industry leader is one of the most satisfying results of today's news."
As previously announced, Nortel does not expect that the Company's common shareholders or the NNL preferred shareholders will receive any value from the creditor protection proceedings and expects that the proceedings will result in the cancellation of these equity interests.
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