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The agreement was signed in Hsinchu, Taiwan by Jae Ryung Lee, chief executive officer of LG-Nortel and A.J. Huang, the chairman of Accton Group. LG-Nortel will own 60% share in the joint venture and Accton Group will own 40%. The new company will be tentatively named Edgecore Networks Inc., which was a subsidiary of Accton and a specialized North American sales company for network solutions. And the joint venture will be established by mid February from headquarters in Irvine, California, USA.

The joint venture will combine the SMB voice and data product expertise of LG-Nortel with Edgecore Networks’ marketing and sales capability, SMB channels, and logistics skills. Combining these capabilities will position the joint venture to take full charge of the SMB and enterprise equipment business of LG-Nortel and Accton across the USA and Canada. Both companies will cooperate in every aspect of their businesses including R&D, manufacturing, marketing, new business development, and brand use.

'LG-Nortel is taking another bold step in North America,' said Lee. 'Like LG-Nortel, Accton is an innovative leader in its market. This partnership will provide significant new opportunities to reinforce our brand, increasing our global competitiveness and helping our customers embrace the future opportunities and challenges of the converged communications market.'

'The establishment of this joint venture will significantly enhance LG-Nortel’s presence in North America,” said Leith Tessy, chief operating officer of LG-Nortel. “Businesses have more complex communications challenges than ever, and the combination of our companies’ respective strengths will provide an unparalleled opportunity to help them meet those challenges.”

'The demands of North American customers are directly connected to the overall trend towards global communication,” said AJ Huang, the chairman of Accton. 'The brand value and voice platform technology that LG-Nortel provides, paired with Accton’s distribution and manufacturing capacity, and our local network reach, will make this joint venture a powerful combination that will deliver significant benefits for companies across North America.'

North America’s highly-competitive SMB telecommunications solution is expected to comprise 27% (US$5.7B) of the global market in 2010. Through the joint venture, LG-Nortel will bring its telecommunications solutions directly to the North American SMB and enterprise market. With a broad portfolio including LG-Nortel’s voice products and Accton’s data products, the joint venture will help both companies strengthen their position in the highly competitive convergence market.