Ciena wins bid for Nortel unit

LINTHICUM - Ciena announced Monday that it's $739 million offer was the winning bid for the optical networking unit of the bankrupt Canadian firm Nortel Networks.

The deal, if approved Wednesday as expected by bankruptcy courts in the United States and Canada, would double the size of Linthicum-based Ciena. Most of those jobs would remain in Toronto, where Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks is based.

"These optical and carrier Ethernet assets bring exceptional technologies, talent and scale that will accelerate Ciena's current strategy to deliver innovative network...