Airvana getting $40M payment after close of Ericsson-Nortel deal

Airvana will receive $39.6 million in payments related to outstanding invoices it had with Nortel Networks, following the close of Ericsson's $1.13 billion deal to acquire Nortel's CDMA and LTE assets.

The invoices are for products and services that Airvana sold to Nortel before it filed for bankruptcy in January. Airvana said that as part of Ericsson's acquisition of the Nortel assets, which closed on Friday, the contract it had with Nortel has now been assigned to Ericsson.

The close of the deal was expected for some time, but it allows Ericsson to tie up all of the loose ends related to the acquisition and assume a greater presence in the North American market. Indeed, Ericsson said that in terms of sales, North America will now be Ericsson's largest region.

In addition to the LTE assets, the vendor is also gaining CDMA contracts with numerous operators, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Leap Wireless, U.S. Cellular, Bell Canada and Telus. The company will have 14,000 employees in North America, making it its second largest region in terms of employees.  

For more:
- see this Airvana release
- see this Ericsson release

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