Carrier network specialist Ciena emerged as the winner of Nortel’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets, following an extended auction that took place over the weekend.

Monday afternoon Ciena said it paid $530m in cash and $239m in Senior Convertible notes due 2017 for a total consideration of $769m for the assets.

Ciena is also expected to make employment offers to at least 2,000 Nortel employees to become part of Ciena’s global team of network specialists.

In a statement on Monday morning, rival bidder Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) confirmed that did not submit the highest bid for Nortel’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets in the auction that began Friday morning and extended through the weekend.

“Nokia Siemens Networks believes that its final offer represented fair value for the assets, and further bidding could not be financially justified,” the company said.

The assets in question were owned by Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business and include the Canadian firm’s long-haul optical transport portfolio, metro optical Ethernet switching and transport solutions, Ethernet transport, aggregation and switching technology, multiservice SONET/SDH product families, and network management software products.

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