When Alcatel and Lucent Technologies announced their betrothal a year ago, analysts and prognosticators began talking much more seriously about which vendors would best be paired with which in the pending consolidation crush.

A hot commodity like Redback Networks would go quickly, it was said, and it did.
Mid-sized players like Tellabs and Ciena would eventually hook up with others (they haven’t yet). But Nortel Networks, which at the time was still working hard to fix its persistent accounting problems, was in danger of being left without a date for the prom. Potential merger partners would deem Nortel too unsafe until its books were put to bed, many believed, and by then, almost all the best players would already be paired off.

Today, however, with Nortel’s accounting problems fading away (the company settled an investigation by the Ontario Securities Commision last week), there are still plenty of available dance partners around. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this week that Nortel has met with Avaya to discuss the merits (and even the price) of a potential merger. Some say Nortel is also considering reviving the partnership it formed with Juniper Networks in 2000. Last fall, analysts said Nortel was eyeing Force10 Networks.

Nortel may yet be a leader in the vendor consolidation sweepstakes. Until it makes some big announcements, I expect to see a lot more murmurs of meetings like the ones it has had with Avaya. If you hear about any, let me know.

E-mail me at ed.gubbins@penton.com.