Nortel rebrands in wake of Bay deal

Nortel is planning a name-change at its New York analysts' meeting later today. It's going to call itself Nortel Networks. This 'radical' move, which comes on top of the company's previous shock name change from Northern Telecom to Nortel, allegedly reflects the addition of Bay Networks' IP expertise. The previous change allegedly took place in 1995, but as 'Nortel' media relations still frequently makes announcements headed "Northern Telecom" not all of the staff seem to have heard yet. It's not exactly clear what the point of talking about the name change a day early, or indeed of making it at all, is. Nortel stock is down 25 per cent or thereabouts on the past few weeks, and earlier this month said it would cut 4 per cent of staff globally. So it had better come up with something more than a new logo, if the analysts are to be impressed. ® Click for more stories