The decision to diversify its hardware heritage follows several moves by Nortel of this year to thin out its core functions that focus on mobility and convergence.
In a press conference in London on Wednesday, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski said: “People have said we are in too many areas people think of Nortel as a hardware company, but not how we see the future going to be much more focused on software .. the environment. ”
The company partnered with Microsoft earlier this year to develop and market “unified communications products, while the sale of its UMTS access business, citing the lack of proper scale hampered financial progress. Alcatel has agreed to buy U.S. company 320 million U.S. dollars, while Nortel said it would focus on what he calls “4G wireless.”
Zafirovski added: “There is much excitement about the jobs and growth tended to be large we are not there now we have a plan in the next five years …. It will be a great place to work.”
Zafirovski said that more than 50 percent of revenue comes from outside the United States, most of which comes from the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). “We have to do here that even through trials and tribulations has grown over the past six years,” he said.
The company announced a series of contract wins today including projects with The Daily Telegraph, The Economist and Swisscom.
During the past two years, Nortel has had to revise its financial results and has gone through a series of lawsuits with investors.
Last month, Ciena and Nortel settled a legal dispute over technology rights.