Cisco says no to Nortel

Troubled Canadian company Nortel Networks is not to become a target of Cisco, the company has confirmed.

Nortel has become a high-profile emblem of the dotcom collapse during the course of this year, announcing a phenomenal loss of $19.2bn in the second quarter of this year alone, and laying off over 50,000 staff in the last few months.

A little over a year ago, Nortel shares hit a peak of $84, falling to below $5 this summer, making the company an apparently attractive buy.

But Cisco, which has been reporting better than expected performance, denied any interest in acquiring its rival.

"There's no chance we'll ever buy Nortel," Phil Smith, business development director for Cisco in the UK, told vnunet.com.

"Cisco has always bought incremental technology companies that could integrate easily into our structure, rather than merge with a big company like Nortel with all the legacy that would entail. But we will continue to work with them," he said.