I would be interesting for sure, Microsoft definitely has the cash to buy Nortel if it desired.

As for the old friends, that is what I’ve been told (mind you it was from a marketing guy in the Innovative Communications Alliance, so make of it what you will). I would love to hear more details on Mike’s background, I’ve got the usual corporate bio stuff, I know his family immigrated from Macedonia and we went to University in Pennsylvania before joining GE .

I’ll give you that its somewhat a different relationship. I honestly think it could be a prelude to Microsoft acquiring Nortel outright in their war against Cisco. As we head into the next downturn, Nortel’s market value will decline relative to their true long term value in the network and enterprise market space. This would make them a ripe acquisition for a struggling giant like Microsoft as the networking market continues to diverge between the haves (Cisco) and have nots (everyone else). It just seems the entire market needs further consolidation because no one other than Cisco appears to be executing their plan well.

I find it hard to believe Mike Z. and Steve B. are “old” friends. One was woven from the frat boy crew that played sports in college and attended school in Europe, the other was a geek who was part of a tech company with a friend of his name Bill.

While Microsoft does have partnership arrangements with other companies (just as Nortel is partnered with other companies like IBM on UC), the relationship with Nortel is unique. It is the only one where joint R&D is being conducted (only 3 companies have badge access in Redmont, Intel, AMD and Nortel), the only one with a joint go-to market strategy (Nortel and Microsoft Sales Teams jointly marketing and selling product), and many networking engineering services are delivered via Nortel Professional Servicies. So it does go well beyond the standard interop agreements the Microsoft has signed with other PBX vendors. It also helps that Mike Z. and Steve B. are old friends.

i have been on the wireline side for 20 yearsa nd just this year was assigned to the wireless side and i can say that the WASTE is on the WIRELESS side.. 8 months in my present assignment i have worked i say WORKED only 4 months, paid for 8… all i see is chaos and lack of consistant work flow to support the personel.. yes, missing parts and miss ordered parts have plaged us, but the wirless side is far worse on this front than wilreline, optical, and enterprize..
but, ‘Still a Nortel Slave’ sharks and aligators don’t feed on thier own.

joel hackney says ‘if you don’t like it here, leave’

I tend to agree. Zafirovski is a delivery boy not a visionary this is not a bad thing, just that he needs to be COO and not CEO. His credibility is shot because of the hypocrisy surrounding his buddy hackney. OTOH, Roese has some good ideas and credentials. I know NT has the technical talent, it just needs to start pulling in the same direction and stop putting their ads in airports.

I will say I am happy to see him make statements that they are going to focus, however I have seen little walk to match the talk.

I think they have an opening. ALU is having trouble because no one is sure (even ALU) which of their duplicate products are going to be cut.

Ericsson is weak and slow in all areas from the RNC into the core network.

Cisco is well….. crisco…..slippery and expensive.

Juniper is having troubles and MPLS is losing traction.

Tellabs has a great product but is stretched too thin to support it.

I could go on, but NT continues to flounder and not capitalize on competitors mistakes, or find partners where they are not competitive for end-to-end offerings. Too bad.

These processes (mostly from BNR) were integral to Nortel successes and market share. I don’t think that the basic value of these processes has changed in the marketplace today. True, they were abused by some.

The ones that came to my mind when I read zafirovski’s statement were the PRS process where there was traceability from a problem report (customer) all they way to design and ownership end to end with a formal response required. This built customer loyalty and kept designers from retreating to the ivory tower

The development process that was the first to do multi-site, multi-timezone, multi-cultural software development. This process also had feedback loops and documentation into the standards bodies and early notification of changes that potentially affected the customers network. This allowed people to plan rather than being unpleasantly surprised. This was a good thing.

The problem I have with what nortel put in place to replace them is that they sacrificed the most important aspects in the name of speed. Fast is not necessarily good and nortel sacrificed good for fast in a big way.

I think that one of the reasons nortel failed in a big way on the wireless side because there was a lot of cowboy development, adventures in marketing and miscommunications with the customer. I agree that there must be lightweight process for rapid enterprise development and vertical markets, but the value and reason for success still must be understood and captured.

I am on the wireless service provider side now and I am exposed to all of the vendors products and processes, believe me when I tell you that one of the reasons nortel is selling product at all is there is still some semblance of predictable process.

I disagree with your generalization about people, but that is another subject.

I give the CTO credit for bringing a youthful feel, renewal and energy to the perception of the company by the market. Mike Z seems to just be a figurehead in all of it. He can claim credit if things go well and have plausible deniability if the rest of company doesn’t execute. He just seems to be a little distant and removed from running the company these days despite having the title of Chief Operating Officer.

Regarding the process piece, its funny he mentions the Motorola phone business. The reason that business temporarily turned around was b/c of the Razr which was developed by a rogue group which followed little process at Motorola. Essentially that group was a one trick pony which Mike took credit for. I guess he doesn’t deserve any of the blame now that that business has fallen on quality issues despite the product not having changed much since he left Motorola.

The quote “These things do not happen overnight” looks like another way of saying to the board “Please give me more time.” Even the point that the static “does not affect me” tells you Mike Z is out of touch. He doesn’t seem to realize that this blog does affect Nortel.