Nortel Networks to Expand Campus

SANTA CLARA, CA-Nortel Networks Corp. is consolidating several Silicon Valley operations with a $200-million expansion of its local campus, along Great America Parkway near Highway 101.

The telecommunications equipment firm breaks ground next week on the project. It will allow employees scattered in 15 different sites to join the new campus, increasing the number of Santa Clara employees to 3,800 from 1,400.

The expansion will add two more buildings, the first of which is slated to be complete by December 2001. A company source says that $12 million will be saved in networking costs alone, since operations will no longer take place out of separate buildings.

Nortel, based in Ontario, Canada, is North America’s second-largest telecommunications supplier. In the last two years, the company has spent in excess of $20 billion acquiring Silicon Valley startups.