Canadian communications giant Nortel said Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski would step down after second quarter revenue dropped 25 percent. The company said Monday it would reduce the size of its board from nine to three members, keeping David Richardson to serve as chairman, effective today. John MacNaughton and Jalynn Bennett remain on the board, the company said in a statement. The quarter for company, which is shedding assets while in bankruptcy protection, included a sale of its wireless division to Ericsson for $1.13 billion. Since filing for creditor protection, the company has been successfully stabilizing its businesses and maintaining customer commitments and innovation platforms, Zafirovski said.

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson says it has won an auction for the wireless unit of the bankrupt Canadian company Nortel Networks Corp. Ericsson's bid of $1.13 billion for Nortel Wireless was nearly double its nearest competitor, Nokia Siemens Networks, at an auction Friday in New York, The Toronto Star reported.

Nokia Siemens Networks announced Saturday that it will buy the wireless operations of Canadian-based Nortel Networks in a $650 million deal to strengthen its position in North American markets.

A Canadian parliamentary committee in Ottawa wants to hear from the chief of Nortel Networks why executives got bonuses during bankruptcy protection. Earlier this week, the Finance Committee requested Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski to explain why the millions of dollars in bonuses were paid as employees' and pensioners' benefits were delayed, the Canwest News Service reported. The Toronto company declined, saying it would be inappropriate while the communications giant is before bankruptcy courts in the province of Ontario and the United States. However, Tuesday morning, the committee voted that it has supremacy, and ordered Zafirovski to appear Thursday, the report said. Nortel has laid off some 5,000 people since November, although no severance or benefit extensions have been granted, the report said. The fact that there are legal proceedings involving its insolvency has nothing to do with their inability to testify, said committee member Thomas Mulcair of the socialist New

Telecommunications gear maker Nortel Networks Corp filed for bankruptcy protection in the US and Canada today, following losses from a sharp drop in orders and the failure to secure adequate financing amid a growing recession.