Ever since Alcatel of France acquired Lucent of the US in a $13.4bn deal at the end of 2006, capping a wave of telecoms industry consolidation, Canada's Nortel Networks has held the dubious distinction of being North America's biggest telecoms equipment maker.
Unfortunately for Nortel, which filed for Chapter 11 and 15 bankruptcy court protection from its creditors yesterday, it was in no shape to capitalise upon the opportunity that the latest technological developments and market dynamics served up, in spite of its illustrious engineering history.
