R&D spending at Nortel Networks Corp continues its precipitous plunge with the release of its second quarter financial statements. For the quarter ended June 30, R&D expenses were US $579 million, a drop of 36.4% from the same period last year. For the first six months of 2002, R&D outlays totalled $1.174 billion, down 36.6% from last year when the tally was $1.853 billion. Revenues have also declined dramatically, with quarterly sales of $2.773 billion, compared to $4.6 billion for the same quarter in 2001. For the first six months of 2002, revenues totaled $5.685 billion, down from $10.361 billion or 45.1% from same six months last year….