2010-06-30

Acquisition of Nortel's stake of LG-Nortel completed

• LG-Ericsson will be one of the major telecom players in Korea

• Purchase price of USD 242 million on a cash and debt free basis

• Accretive to Ericsson's earnings within a year

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has completed the acquisition of Nortel's majority shareholding (50%+1 share) in LG-Nortel, the joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel Networks. Today's closing follows the announcement on April 21 that Ericsson had entered into a share purchase agreement for this stake.

"The completion of this acquisition significantly expands our position in Korea and shows our commitment to the market," said Mats H. Olsson, President of Ericsson China and North East Asia. "The skill and experience from the LG-Nortel employees will be key to continue to provide leading technology and services to our customers."

Olsson highlighted the importance of the Korean market as it is one of the 10 largest telecom markets in the world with advanced end-user demand for new services.

The joint venture was established in 2005 through the contribution by LG Electronics of its telecommunications systems business and by Nortel of its Korean distribution business. The focus of the joint venture has been to develop and market large scale telecommunications systems such as WCDMA, CDMA and LTE for telecom service providers in Korea as well as enterprise products and services. In 2009, LG-Nortel generated approximately USD 650 million of sales and had 1,300 employees.

The joint venture includes important contracts with Korean operators such as KT, LG Telecom and SK Telecom.

SEB Enskilda was Ericsson's sole financial advisor in the transaction.

Press release in PDF

Information about the company: Telefon AB LM Ericsson