Information AboutNortel |
Nortel Networks Corporation , formerly known as '''Northern Telecom Limited''' and now known simply as '''Nortel''', is a Multinational Telecommunications equipment Manufacturer headquartered in Toronto , Canada . HISTORY In 1895, Bell Telephone Company Of Canada decided to spin off its manufacturing arm to build phones for sale to other companies as well as other devices such as Fire Alarm boxes and Street Call Boxes for Police and Fire Department s. This company was incorporated as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company Limited. In 1900, the new company began manufacturing the first wind-up Gramophone s that played Flat Discs . In 1913, the company's headquarters and main factory was built in Montreal . In 1914, the company merged with Imperial Cable to form Northern Electric, co-owned by Bell Canada and the U.S. company Western Electric . By the end of World War I , Northern Electric had become a major distributor of Western Electric appliances across Canada. In 1922, Northern Electric started manufacturing radios. In 1928, it produced the first Talking Movie Sound System in the British Empire for a theatre in Montreal. In 1949, an Antitrust suit in the U.S. forced AT&T /Western Electric to sell its stake in Northern Electric to Bell Canada. Deprived of its Western Electric tie, Northern began developing its own products. In 1953, Northern Electric produced its first television sets using Tubes made by RCA . Bell Canada acquired 100 percent of Northern Electric in 1964; through public stock offerings starting in 1973, Bell's ownership of Northern Electric and its successors would be reduced, though it continued to have majority control. In 1966, the Northern Electric research lab, Northern Electric Laboratories (the predecessor to Bell-Northern Research ), started looking into the possibilities of Fiber Optic Cable , and in 1969, began work on digitizing telephone communications. Also in 1969, Northern began making inroads into the U.S. market with its switching systems. In 1972, it opened its first factory in the U.S. in Michigan . In 1975, Northern began shipping its first Digital switching systems, one of the earliest such systems to be sold. In 1976, the company name was changed to Northern Telecom Limited, and management announced its intention to concentrate the company's efforts on digital technology. Digital World was Northern Telecom’s daring declaration, made public by a three-page advertisement that appeared in major trade publications in 1976, that digital technology was the key to the future. It was the first to announce, and to deliver, one year ahead of schedule, a complete line of fully digital telecommunications products. The most well-known of that Digital World product family, the DMS-100, a fully digital central office switch serving as many as 100,000 lines, was a key contributor to the company’s revenue for close to 15 years. In 1977, Nortel introduced its DMS line of digital central office telephone switches, providing explosive growth for the company, especially after the AT&T breakup in 1984. Northern Telecom became the first non-Japanese supplier to Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, and the company took advantage of opportunities in Europe and China. In 1983, due to deregulation, Bell Canada Enterprises (later shortened to BCE ) was formed as the parent company to Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. Bell-Northern Research was jointly owned 50-50 by Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. The combined three companies were referred to by employees as the tricorporate. As Nortel, the streamlined identity it adopted for its 100-year anniversary in 1995, the company set out to dominate the burgeoning Global Market for Public and private networks. In 1998, with the acquisition of Bay Networks , the company's name was changed to Nortel Networks to emphasize its ability to provide complete solutions for multiprotocol, multiservice, global networking over the Internet and other communications networks. As a consequence of the stock transaction used to purchase Bay Networks, BCE ceased to be the majority shareholder of Nortel. In 2000, BCE spun-out Nortel, distributing its holdings of Nortel to its shareholders. Bell-Northern Research was gradually absorbed into Nortel, as it first acquired a majority share in BNR, and eventually acquired the entire company. In the late 1990s, stock market Speculators , hoping that Nortel would reap increasingly lucrative profits from the sale of fibre optic network gear, began pushing up the price of the company's shares to unheard-of levels despite the company's repeated failure to turn a profit. Under the leadership of CEO John Roth , sales of optical equipment had been robust in the late 1990s, but the market was soon saturated. When the speculative telecom Bubble Of The Late 1990s reached its pinnacle, Nortel was to become one of the most spectacular casualties. At its height, Nortel accounted for more than a third of the total valuation of all the companies listed on the then took over as the CEO, and was most recently succeeded by Mike S. Zafirovski . In late 2004, Nortel returned to using the Nortel name alone for branding purposes, although the company's name remains Nortel Networks. CORPORATE INFORMATION Business structure |
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