Nortel fires chief

NORTEL Networks Corp, North America’s largest maker of telephone equipment, fired chief executive Frank Dunn because of accounting mistakes and said it may have to reduce last year’s earnings 50%.

The Brampton, Ontario-based company also fired its chief financial offer and controller and said director William Owens, a 63-year-old retired admiral and former vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, will replace Mr Dunn. Nortel shares tumbled by as much as 29%.

Investors had credited the 50-year-old Mr Dunn, chief executive since 2001, with returning Nortel to its first profit since 1997 last year after cutting about 60,000 jobs and shutting plants.