Said Nortel's chief operation officer, Clarence Chandran: "Our acquisition of Alteon WebSystems will accelerate the delivery of an Internet data centre capable of moving content seamlessly and rapidly across high-performance optical Internet and 3G wireless networks." - - - Microsoft's "biggest ever" launch for Xbox: Microsoft said Thursday it will spend half a billion dollars to launch its Xbox video game console in what will be its grandest product debut ever as it seeks to unseat Sony from the top spot in the gaming market. "This will be the biggest launch Microsoft has ever done," Robbie Bach, senior vice president of Microsoft's games division, told an annual meeting of financial analysts at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Expected to launch in the fall of 2001, the Xbox would be backed by a $500 million marketing blitz in the first 18 months of its debut, Bach said.