Ericsson has completed its acquisition of substantially all of Nortel's CDMA business and LTE assets in North America. The Nortel acquisition positions Ericsson as the leading provider of telecommunications technology and services in the United States and Canada. Included in the acquisition are more than 2,500 employees causing Ericsson North America employees to grow to more than 14,000.The acquisition includes the transfer of CDMA contracts with North American operators including Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, Bell Canada, Telus and Leap, as well as LTE assets, certain patents and patent licenses relating to CDMA and LTE. Nortel's customers will also benefit from the continued support of Nortel's installed CDMA base and the migration path to LTE. Ericsson announced on 25 July of this year that entered into an asset purchase agreement of USD 1.13 billion, subject to approval by the United States and Canadian Bankruptcy Courts and the satisfaction of regulatory and other conditions. With the approvals received, Ericsson was able to complete the transaction.The former Nortel staff will be integrated into the Ericsson group over the coming months and the entity will work under the Ericsson brand beginning on 13 November. The results for these operations will be consolidated by Ericsson on a pro-rata basis from the closing date proportionally within segments Networks and Professional Services. The report for the fourth quarter 2009 will be the first accounts including the new entity.
