Telecom Gets New Parent

Telecom gets new parent

By Pamela Klein

NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

American operations of the Canadian corporation Northern Telecom Ltd. - including Ann Arbor’s former Sycor Inc. - will be reorganized under a new parent firm headquartered in Nashville.

The new corporate structure will mean that some of the 675 employees in Ann Arbor will report to a new parent company, although Northern Telecom officials are quick to stress that no movement of personnel is involved in the reorganization.

NORTHERN TELECOM Industries will be the holding company for the Canadian firm’s U.S. operations, according to President Edmund B. Fitzgerald. Northern Telecom Inc., also headquartered in Nashville, and Northern Telecom Systems Corp., based in Minneapolis, will be subsidiaries of the American parent firm.

NTSC became the parent company of Ann Arbor’s Sycor Inc. when Northern Telecom Ltd. purchased the local manufacturer of computer terminals in 1978.

Fitzgerald said the reorganization is designed to “enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. operating units and to present a concise, unified and consistent profile of Northern Telecom to all of our U.S. audiences.”

Under the new structure, about 185 research and development employees located in Ann Arbor will become integrated into BNR Inc., headquartered in Mountainview, Calif. The remaining 490 workers in Ann Arbor will remain part of NTSC, according to a spokesman.

BNR INC. IS a subsidiary of Bell Northern Research, a company owned jointly by Bell Canada and Northern Telecom Ltd. About 65 research employees employed in NTSC’s Minneapolis offices also will become part of BNR.

Fitzgerald said the corporate shuffling from NTSC to BNR is designed “to concentrate the talents and resources of NTSC management in the highly competitive and fast-growing market for electronic office systems. The scope of NTSC therefore has been revised to include solely the markets for these types of products.”

Northern Telecom Ltd. is the second largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in North America.