Nortel Networks Corp will jointly develop business-focused multimedia services with France Telecom as part of a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at the convergence of the telecommunication, information technologies and multimedia industries. The purpose of the R&D is to develop services that simplify collaborative work and person-to-person communications. The MOU covers the establishment of joint R&D teams, the sharing of R&D funding and the sharing of intellectual property. A binding agreement will be completed in the coming months.