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Let’s Be Clear Here
By Mark Evans | July 9, 2007
There have been a few comments recently about whether I own stock in Nortel or other telecom equipment suppliers; why I insist on writing negative stories about Nortel; and my personal view on Nortel’s prospects. In the name of transparency, here’s the deal:
1. I don’t own Nortel shares or, for that matter, shares of Cisco, Juniper, Alcatel or any other supplier or telecom carrier. This approach - for better or worse - comes from my days as a business journalist where owning shares in the companies you covered was a non-starter.
2. As a journalist, writing about bad news is a lot more fun than writing about good news. It’s that simple. So maybe my blogging about Nortel has embraced the same approach. It’s not intentional - or at least I don’t think it’s intentional - but you have to admit Nortel has offered up an awful lot of really good material if you want to focus on bad news. That said, things at Nortel are changing, which leads to question number three….
3. While I’m not convinced yet Nortel has rebounded from its troubles (i.e. accounting scandal, class-action lawsuits, flat sales, etc.), the company does appear to be headed in the right direction. CEO Mike Zafirovski has brought some much-needed stability and credibility to senior management, brought in some well-regarded executives, reduced operating costs, and given Nortel a new strategic direction that is focused on doing a few things right as opposed to being all things to all people.
That said, it’s still unclear whether all these moves mean Nortel will be successful again. The competitive landscape remains brutally fierce; many of the major players have made major acquisitions or merged operations; and carriers/cablecos are being pragmatic about buying new equipment by building where there is consumer demand as opposed to the telecom boom when they were building new networks and offering new services, and hoping consumers would follow suit.
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