A MULTIBILLION dollar deal by the US communications group Avaya to acquire a division of Nortel Networks should guarantee the future of 140 jobs in the North.
The Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said Avaya’s acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Solutions will result in about 40 per cent of Nortel’s former workforce in the North transferring automatically to the American group.
The New Jersey-based and privately owned group specialises in unified communications, contact centres, data networking products and related services.
Avaya said its acquisition of the Nortel division, which cost in the region of $915 million (€637 million), would expand its global coverage and enlarge its portfolio of systems and services.
It has not detailed exactly how the deal will effect its new Northern Ireland operations or what impact it might have on the failed Canadian group’s facility in Galway.
Nortel Networks, which went into administration earlier this year, currently employs 350 people in Northern Ireland and a further 300 people in Galway.
Nortel’s 34-acre facility in Monkstown in the North had been the headquarters of Nortel’s supply chain operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle east.
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