TORONTO (AP) -- Nortel Networks is in talks to sell nearly all of its factories to electronics firm Flextronics of Singapore in a $500-million deal that could see the Canadian company shed 2,500 jobs.
The company said the negotiations would include manufacturing activities in Brazil, Northern Ireland, and France.
"This is the same strategy we introduced five years ago when we divested most of our manufacturing," Nortel spokeswoman Tina Warren said Thursday. "It will affect a number of employees, but we're in discussions, so it would be premature to discuss."
The company, based just outside Toronto, has gone through a massive downsizing since the global telecom industry began its steepest and deepest decline in history.
Nortel is now only about one-third of its former size, having already cut about 60,000 jobs worldwide. But even before its period of post-bubble downsizing, Nortel had divested much of its manufacturing.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
