Motorola, Nortel Talk Joint Venture

Motorola and Nortel are in talks about a possible merger of their wireless-infrastructure units, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. In the works is a joint venture with Nortel holding a majority stake and likely revenues of around $10 billion from sales of network equipment for wireless phone carriers. The talks are separate from a push for Motorola to sell or spin off its handset business.

The talks represent the latest in a wave of deals that has consolidated the slowing telecom-equipment industry. If both projects go through, Motorola will be a much smaller company focused on making two-way radio equipment, hand-held devices for workers, and cable-industry equipment. (More cell phone industry stories.)