Nortel and Motorola are reportedly in talks to merge their wireless infrastructure businesses in a bid to cut costs.

A joint venture has been under discussion for about a month, the Wall Street Journal said today, citing its standard boardroom-via-PR whispers.

A deal would not be much of a shocker for the wireless industry. Both Moto and Nortel are on the ropes with tumbling stock, and their big infrastructure rivals have consolidated to become Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent.

Such big mergers are fraught with difficulty, however. Alcatel-Lucent is market valued at $20bn less than the separate companies pre-merger.

Neither Moto nor Nortel has commented officially. The reported talks are separate to investor pressure on Moto to offload its ailing handset division. ®

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