Nortel Networks Corp - Early History

In 1882, the Bell Telephone Company of Canada, based in Montreal, founded a manufacturing arm to develop telephone equipment for the company. The new unit had 13 employees. Three years later, the Northern Electric & Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was founded in Canada. Northern Electric took over the making of telephone equipment for Bell Telephone in 1895. Western Electric Co. acquired a minority stake in Northern Electric & Manufacturing in 1906, and seven years later, Northern Electric and Western Electric Co. agreed to share patents.

Northern Electric & Manufacturing Co. merged with Imperial Wire and Cable Co. to form Northern Electric Company, Ltd. in 1914. Bell Telephone retained a 50 percent stake in the new firm, while Western Electric held the remaining shares. Northern Electric continued to grow as a telephone equipment provider throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In the late 1940s, the firm erected a facility to manufacture electronic switchboard and key equipment. Bell repurchased the shares of Northern Electric from Western Electric in 1962; as a result, Northern Electric began to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell. Northern Electric extended its reach overseas for the first time in 1967, when it established a plant in Turkey. The firm also began developing its first switching systems.