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Jan Frykhammar says company has responsibility to shareholders to identify assets that 'can add value' to company.

Ericsson CFO Jan Frykhammar revealed to Total Telecom this week that the company would consider acquiring assets from rival Nokia Siemens Networks – provided they were up for sale.

"If they put out assets for sale and there comes official processes, I think our responsibility... is – if we are invited to have a look – [to] look at them," he said on the sidelines of Ericsson's fourth quarter results presentation on Wednesday.

"If we see that an asset can add value to our company we consider acquiring it," he continued, citing recent examples including Ericsson's $1.15 billion purchase of Telcordia in June 2011 and its participation in the consortium that bought Nortel's patent portfolio a month later for $4.5 billion.

A GigaOM report on Wednesday also linked the Swedish kit vendor with a move for Canadian WiFi specialist BelAir networks.

However, Frykhammar insisted Ericsson is not specifically planning to buy parts of NSN.

"As a leadership team we do not speculate on consolidation," he said. "If assets are available we look at them; whether we go and acquire assets, that's completely different."

Nokia Siemens Networks in November announced plans to refocus the business entirely on mobile broadband and divest or manage for value any assets that fall outside that remit. The move will see 17,000 jobs cut in a bid to reduce costs by €1 billion.

So far NSN has offloaded its WiMAX business to Skyview Capital-owned NewNet Communication Technologies, and its fixed broadband access division to network specialist Adtran for undisclosed fees.

By Nick Wood, Total Telecom
Thursday 26 January 2012

Juniper Networks Inc. reported its fourth-quarter profit fell 49% on weak router sales and forecast a steep profit drop for the current quarter.

The outlook indicated the networking gear maker will suffer more than expected from weak demand among its telecommunications-industry customers. Companies such as AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have taken a cautious approach to spending of late and directed investments at wireless infrastructure, which doesn't directly rely on Juniper's equipment.

"Here in our U.S. business, we saw a number of our largest customers reduce their spending within the quarter," Juniper Chief Executive Kevin Johnson said on a conference call with analysts.

Click here to find out more!The company predicted a first-quarter per-share profit of 11 cents to 14 cents a share, far short of the average analyst estimate of 26 cents on Thomson Reuters. Its revenue prediction of $960 million to $990 million also missed Wall Street's estimate of $1.1 billion.

Shares dropped 7.9% to $20.61 in recent after-hours trading.

The disappointing results come ahead of a series of new product releases that Juniper has argued will drive growth in its business. Executives said Thursday that positive long-term trends in the company's business remain intact. But it remains to be seen when telcos--which typically account for more than half of Juniper's revenue--will prioritize spending on the wireline parts of their networks, which use the company's equipment.

Juniper also faces stiff competition, including from larger rival Cisco Systems Inc. and discounter Huawei Technologies Co.

Chief Financial Officer Robyn Denholm said on the call that "we've not seen any discernible difference in our discounting or in our win-loss ratio" because of the competition.

For the latest quarter, Juniper posted a profit of $96.2 million, or 18 cents a share, down from $190.2 million, or 35 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation costs, restructuring charges and other items, per-share earnings fell to 28 cents from 42 cents as revenue slipped 5.8% to $1.12 billion.

The company's lowered forecast earlier this month called for earnings between 26 cents and 28 cents a share with $1.11 billion to $1.12 billion in revenue.

Gross margin narrowed to 62.4% from 66.6% on the revenue decline.

Total infrastructure revenue fell 6.4% as revenue from routers dropped 13%.

By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires

Optelian, a trusted designer and manufacturer of optical transport systems, today announced that it has acquired Versawave Technologies Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, a leader in the field of ultra-high bandwidth gallium arsenide based optical modulators with patented polarization modulation technology. This strategic move further positions Optelian to broaden its markets, extend technical leadership and strengthen its client services through innovative product development in the field of optical communications, worldwide.

“Our acquisition of Versawave is very much a part of our core strategy of continuing to manufacture in North America and being as vertically integrated as possible to provide our customers with very cost effective solutions and short lead times,” said Optelian’s CEO, David Weymouth.  

A recent study from market research firm, Infonetics Research, has found that operators have a strong preference for deploying 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) technology as they upgrade their networks. “Versawave brings exceptional technology for 100Gbps and will accelerate Optelian’s growth into the next generation of highly integrated photonic systems,” continued Weymouth.

Versawave, led by Hiroshi Kato, will continue to operate at its current Vancouver facility as a division of Optelian. Kato stressed that the “synergy with Optelian will enable Versawave to expand manufacturing, accelerate the making of new products and enhance customer support.”

Ekinops’ new product offering allows service providers to install two 10G circuits, where they could previously install only a single 10G service, doubling the network’s capacity. It can be used on existing Ekinops networks or over third party line systems. This new 10G technology takes advantage of Ekinops' industry leading DynaFEC® (Dynamic Forward Error Correction), allowing it to be deployed over existing line systems even if they utilize older, poorer-performing fiber.