Nortel Networks Corp a giant in telecommunications equipment on Thursday announced its mammoth 1.9 billion spending plan for research and development. This highly anticipated plan will be announced next week and as predicted already creating a lot of buzz in the tech world. According to the CEO Mike Zafirovski the increased R&D budget is the only alternative to have a minimum of 20 points of market share.
Mike Zafirovski was heard saying in conference on web cast “This is intended to be a growth story and will be a growth story. So though we may be exiting some activities … we will be reinvesting in places we’re going to win,”
From the year 1999 Nortel had been on a downward spiral and had to face problems like layoffs, financial restatements, lawsuits, and rigid and criminal probes. The company wants to break away from all these detriments and look at the year 2006 makeover year where Nortel is at a “ground zero”. One of the first steps taken by Zafirovski former Motorola and General Electric chief is to cut down the organization from 10 layers to a 6.
The Chinese Router maker Tasman Networks has already bought by Nortel for $99.5 million and they have also joined hands with their Chinese competitor Huawei Technologies for high-speed access products. Thus from the looks of it Nortel is all geared up for a change and leave a mark in tech world.