Ericsson wins auction for Nortel's wireless assets.

Sweeden-based Ericsson has won the auction for Nortel's wireless assets, acquiring the company's CDMA and LTE technology, the North American CDMA customer base and 2,500 employees for $1.13 billion in cash. 

The acquisition is still subject to court approval in both the U.S. and Canada but Ericsson execuive vice-president Hans Vesberg said he expects the deal to be approved by July 28th in a conference call with analysts and journalists.

"We feel confident this will go through," he said earlier today.

The deal will bring new customers like Sprint, Verizon, Telus and Bell to Ericsson, prividing the company with a new revenue stream and the possibility to expand as Ericsson will now look to gain contracts for CDMA providers looking to changeover over to Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

The 2,500 hundred employees gained (mostly based in Ottawa and Denver) include 400 LTE engineers to add to the R&D operations Ericsson already has. Ericsson will also be taking over pension responsibility for the employees.

Although Nortel's wireless division is currently cash-flow positive, concern has been expressed as CDMA is considered old technology that will eventually be phased out.

However, Vesberg noted that LTE is designed for wireless data transfer so CDMA will still be needed for voice communication until wireless carriers are willing to switch to VoIP solutions.

While Vesberg said the company didn't have immediate plans to expand North American operations beyond this acquisition, which would possibly create new jobs within Nortel's former territory, he didn't rule out the possibility.

"In any business you go in, you want to grow," he said.