OCTOBER 4, 2001

Nortel slashes staff and dumps CEO

CANADA's Nortel Networks, which in recent years has been a big sponsor of the Williams team, has announced that it is cutting staff by 30% having lost $3.6bn so far this year. John Roth, the chief executive, is to be replaced by the company's chief financial officer Frank Dunn. In the circumstances it will be interesting to see if the deal will be continued next year. The current deal runs out at the end of the year.

It is worth noting that Williams was due to make a major sponsorship announcement at the United States GP but decided that the timing was not right and so postponed the plans.