Analyst Reaction to R&D Plan

In the wake of Nortel’s new R&D strategy, the analyst community has bee fairly quiet.

Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff, who is among the most “colorful” commenters, seems to be unconvinced the new approach to R&D will make a difference.

“(Nortel’s) pursuing multiple-end markets, so it’s jack of all trades but master of none,” he told the Ottawa Business Journal. “People are asking, ‘Why is this a $6 stock again?’ because no one knows who they are as a company. They muddle in a lot of things. Where are their core competencies?”

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  • nt
    ex-nt is right. people in here do not even work their hours forget about overtime. it is worse thn government. management is first to get saved. so it is bloated. Juniper, Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson are all doing well. Alcatel was fine until it merged with anohther pig called Lucent, with the same old mentality, unproductive and incompetent leadership (Russo) like Nortel.
  • Ex-Nortel
    Observer, it is obvious the you failed both Business 101 and Statistics 101. Nortel is bloated and Cisco is not by all established metrics. And of course, Cisco has not announced any lay offs of any kind. They are still forecasting to grow at least 13% in Calendar Year 2008. There will not be any lay offs at Cisco, unlike Nortel.

    Nortel is bloated and unproductive. 30,000+ employees as forecast to generate a flat $10.6B in revenue with perhaps $110M in profits and a negative operating cash flow for Calendar Year 2008.

    Cisco's 42,000+ employees will generate $43B in revenue eith $8.6B in profits and with an operating cash flow of $10.7B.

    By any metric, Nortel is the bloated pig.
  • Observer
    By the way, I expect massive job cuts from Cisco and others soon. For the most part, I believe Nortel's size is fine and in line with their revenue and cost model. Unfortunately others in the industry have either grown too much and become bloated (Cisco and Juniper) or never did right the ship (Alcatel/Lucent, Siemens, Motorola, Nokia-Siemens)
  • Observer
    The analysts will be the last ones on board and the first to get off. Here are some other companies that muddle in a lot of things:

    Cisco
    IBM
    GE

    I think what people are really getting at is, its all about execution. Nortel will get it right. It just won't be until the economy turns around. There will be a down cycle. Expect them to emerge by 2010 Winter Olympics though. I dare say it will be like BNR again the way things are going.
  • Jailbird John
    Yes, but THIS new strategy is sure to work, the other new strategies were just interim new strategies to get us past the problems with the old strategy. Now that we've implemented the previous new strategies, this new strategy will be very fruitful.
  • NewBlue
    "In the wake of Nortel’s new R&D strategy, the analyst community has bee fairly quiet."

    Let's review:

    http://www.allaboutnortel.com/2008/03/21/quote-...

    “No one listens to them,” said analyst Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff told the News & Observer. “When you lack credibility, there’s a significant discount that’s applied to everything you say and do.”

    Can anyone honestly be surprised at the lack of embrace for the "new" new strategy?
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