Say what you will about Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski but no one can accuse him of not being bullish or optimistic. At the company’s annual meeting in Ottawa yesterday, he declared Nortel “will be great again”, and that “we are poised, once again, to define a new era in communications”, and that “Nortel is on the offense again – for the first time in many years”. No doubt Zafirovski can talk the talk but can he make Nortel walk the walk?
You have to give him credit for fixing Nortel in the wake of an accounting scandal where the focus was more on bonuses more than ensuring the company was well-positioned to compete in an increasingly competitive and volatile market. But now what? Nortel talks about its hopes for IP-TV, services and hyper-connectivity but the proof will be in the pudding to see if strategic aspirations can turn into solid financial results. For people interested in fundamentals as opposed to bullish proclamations, it will be interesting to see if there is cause for optimism within Nortel’s first-quarter results, which will be released after the markets close today.
Update: For more on Nortel’s strategic plans, check out InfoWorld.
I had a customer visit both Cisco and Nortel for an upcoming project and they came back with the following: Cisco was very slick with lots of cool things. Nortel was more Engineering focused however also had very cool stuff. The customer said we need to advertise and promote the fact that we are doing the same stuff Cico claims they are only capable of. Sales and Marketing needs to step up and take it to the next level, then and only then will Nortel return to greatness.
duh!
Did you expect him to sit up there and say Nortel was going to tank???
Limping-a-Long
Why should we continue paying top dollar for top talent when top results are not being realized?
To ensure Nortel remains on the offense, to demonstrate his personal belief and committment to increasing stockholder value, and in the true spirit of actual Pay for Performance, I propose that Mike Z’s compensation should be directly proportional to the actual daily return realized by the retail investor.
May I suggest Mike Z’s total yearly salary and compensation should be prorated to equal the number of trading days in a year, and that he should be paid daily in retail Nortel stock. If the stock goes up, he will do well. If it tanks, he will feel the same pain as the rest of us.
Come on Mike Z! Show us your committment!
many
I seem to recall this is a reoccurring theme with Nortel. Good (better than believable) Q1 results followed by restatement, chaos, and embarrassment in the CFOs office.
I think I will withhold judgment until NT reports significantly improved earnings quarter over quarter for five quarters running. (without restatement)
Cool Living
Shareholder value will be the final judge of MZ’s comments on the future. The stock’s 52-wk high is still 10% below the $35 reached about 6 – 8 weeks after MZ came on board and has see-sawed ever since.
I’ll give MZ and his mgmt team with above-market salaries another 4 quarters but that will be it for my 10K shares…I would rather take the loss then and reinvest than keep buying into their hype.
Last Hurrah
I don’t think we’ll know until 2009 whether this management team is effective or not. Remember the “business transformation” (i.e cost cutting) is to continue until the end of 2009. The numbers make look better but if peers grow faster then you will know Nortel is not winning its fair share of new business.
Anyway, it doesn’t seem to matter at this point how Nortel does as long as they muddle along. They have the Canadian government in their back pocket just like Bell Canada because too many pension funds in Canada own the stock of both companies. The Canadian government will be forced to throw good money after bad. Ah the wonders of a fiat currency !
Zafirovski Bullish
Say what you will about Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski but no one can accuse him of not being bullish or optimistic. At the company’s annual meeting in Ottawa yesterday, he declared Nortel “will be great again”, and that “we are poised, once again, to define a new era in communications”, and that “Nortel is on the offense again – for the first time in many years”. No doubt Zafirovski can talk the talk but can he make Nortel walk the walk?
You have to give him credit for fixing Nortel in the wake of an accounting scandal where the focus was more on bonuses more than ensuring the company was well-positioned to compete in an increasingly competitive and volatile market. But now what? Nortel talks about its hopes for IP-TV, services and hyper-connectivity but the proof will be in the pudding to see if strategic aspirations can turn into solid financial results. For people interested in fundamentals as opposed to bullish proclamations, it will be interesting to see if there is cause for optimism within Nortel’s first-quarter results, which will be released after the markets close today.
Update: For more on Nortel’s strategic plans, check out InfoWorld.