Report: Ericsson expected to buy controlling stake in LG-Nortel

The Seoul Economic Daily's Web service is reporting that Ericsson will announce plans to buy a controlling stake in a joint venture between LG Electronics and Nortel Networks. The publication said Ericsson will make the announcement on Friday and will buy a 50-percent stake plus one share in LG-Nortel.

LG, however, has said that nothing official has been announced. "No schedule or partner has been decided for the moment," LG spokesman Kim Gyeong Whan told Bloomberg. 

Last year, Nortel Networks had confirmed it was seeking a buyer for its majority stake--50 percent plus one additional share--in the JV. The two companies established LG-Nortel about four years ago at a time when several North American vendors were beginning to look toward Asia for new market opportunities. The joint venture has focused on enterprise solutions and both wireless and wireline developments.

The JV has conducted a 3GPP-compliant seamless data transmission, or handover, between an LTE network and a CDMA network, a capability Ericsson benefits from as as an LTE vendor to both Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS in the United States.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Reuters article

Related articles:
Nortel confirms it will exit LG JV
LG, Nortel demonstrates LTE-CDMA handover