Nortel creates Net unit

Nortel Networks Corp. said that it created a new unit focusing on Internet commerce and that it will work more closely with Andersen Consulting, the world's largest consulting firm.<P>The subsidiary,

Monday, April 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Nortel Networks Corp. said that it created a new unit focusing on Internet commerce and that it will work more closely with Andersen Consulting, the world's largest consulting firm.

The subsidiary, called Clarify eBusiness Applications, builds off of Nortel's recent acquisitions of Clarify Inc. and Periphonics Corp.

With headquarters in San Jose, Calif., it starts off with sales of about $600 million and is expected to grow at a pace of 20 percent to 30 percent a year.

It will become a part of Nortel's Enterprise Solutions group, which is based in Richardson.

That growth, Nortel said, will help the company jump-start sales of communications equipment to business and government customers, which were down 5 percent to $1.45 billion in the fourth quarter.

"What we see . . . is a tremendous re-engineering of the enterprise business, and a migration toward e-business," said F. William Conner, Enterprise Solutions group president.

Andersen said it will promote Nortel'!
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s products and install them for customers.

Nortel's strategy appears to be in sharp contrast with that of Lucent Technologies Inc., one of Nortel's main competitors, which said recently that it will spin off its enterprise operations by Sept. 30.

Nortel shares fell $2.50 to $140.56 Tuesday the New York Stock Exchange.

Nortel bought Clarify, whose software manages customer information, for $3.8 billion in a transaction that closed earlier this month.

It paid $609.5 million for Periphonics last November to gain phone systems that can recognize voice commands.