Cisco Attacks Nortel’s Green Initiative

By Mark Evans | Published: November 23, 2008

You had to figure it was only a matter of time before Cisco responded to Nortel’s energy conservation/green marketing strategy, which took direct aim at Cisco.

Cisco had put together five videos, which are cheeky but leave no doubt about Cisco’s intention to debunk Nortel’s claims. Here’s the first of the five videos, which were put together by “Career Limiting Productions”.

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broadbandbill

Optimist, et al;

OK, let me end this argument once and for all: NORTEL HAD A FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE FOR A CENTURY!!!! What good did it do? Cisco had First Mover-to-Growth Advantage (in the then emerging IP world). Had enough? …– bb
broadbandbill

Nortel and marketing products in the same sentence? You really are an Optimist…–bb
Hilarious_Squint

Wow, I have to congratulate Mark for fostering this community of such diverse knowledge and eminence. Well done!

You'll have to excuse my first steps as I'm not really into blogging or posting stuff, but I am a Nortel MEN employee and I've been following this blog for a few months hoping that it will give me some additional clues about the turmoil we are going through. It has been an interesting read, and I must say that I am really astounded by the depth and breadth of knowledge that some of the most frequent posters presume to have. The command they have of a diverse set of topics and the floral diatribe with which they engage in verbal dueling is simply mind-boggling. The ferocity with which they cling to their 'successful' predictions would make Nostradamus weep in shame. The beauty of their demagoguery overshadows anything the ancient greek could devise, admittedly because they spent most of their time running around naked with too many young men (the greek, not the respected posters, hopefully).

I feel that since I am surely a lesser being, I cannot say much that will change their universe or their enormous egos, so I won't. What I prefer to do is try to add some hilarity to this blog, which has become such a dark and sad place to be. Thus maybe some of my colleagues and/or fellow posters can lighten up their day and turn these black clouds into a fine spring mist with a scent of onions and elefant dung. Hint: I'm sure the wise old posters know elephant dung has magical properties and no, smoking it doesn't count. (Come on posters, just Google it and you can talk about it for days!)

I'd just like to close off this, my first commentary, with a warm hug of gratitude to all posters here. Thank you for the tidbits, gossip, insights and petty bickering. Some of it has been useful, some of it has been useless, but it all goes to show that you either love Nortel more than you care to know or you have some very, very, sad and empty lives.

As for me, I'll fade back into my lemmingness and try to hack it out in the daily struggle to win business. Since there is little chance that I will make it to top poster, I guess I'll have to work instead. But heck, I can always come back home every day and know that someone, somewhere will have hemorraghed information in a post that I just can't wait to read.

O tempora, o mores.

- HS
puddintane

“Spew” is the word du jour of the Noble Thinker masses. They made Obama win – like AAN makes Nortel's stock slump most unfairly.

Yeah, always use adjectives in the superlative, hence: sorest losers spewing the saddest, vilest, darkest, emptiest, pettiest, weepiest, most astounding/enormous/presumptious demagoguery ever. Etc.

This lays the foundation to ultimately set Godwin's Law upon, then you can lay claim to the most prestigious Winning an Argument on the Internet prize (Google an Image of it, its out there).

Personally, I feel about as “bitter” toward Nortel as most grumpy hata puppets Waldorf and Statler despised everything about “The Muppet Show”:

http://kathrynwithay.files.wordpress.com/2008/0…
Optimist

Remember, bb, Cisco is where Nortel was 8 years ago. The bigger you get the harder you fall. Not to say that Cisco will fall, but when an org grows too big, like where Cisco is right now, it becomes harder to manage. Inefficiencies creep in, resources get wasted, and you end up with products that are far less efficient then their competitors. Marketing can get you so far. But once businesses realize that they can get a cheaper and more efficient product at a cheaper price, they will switch…no pun intended.

Its not by accident that Cisco chose to release the You Tube commercials in response to Nortel's energy commercials. They must have realized they are losing market share because of it Though it may be a trickle, it may not be long before it becomes a flood. As someone noted earlier in the blog as to why cisco has to respond to a company with so little a market cap, this may be the reason why.

Last 8 years, Nortel was bogged down by issues other than marketing their business. That's all behind now. The tide will turn, and when it does it will be fast.

A company that spends more than a billion on R&D (which is more than the GDP of half of the countries in the world) will not fade away so fast. Its preping…and will soon have its share of the cake.
Optimist

Well, bb, if NT has been poor at marketing so far, does it automatically mean its products are bad?. Poor marketing can be fixed, but not vice-versa.
less

The West isn't forcing China to manufacture anything. The noble ancient races of Asia like money no less than the socialist Euro likes his 6 week vacations that require copious plane travel and result in peeing countless gallons of beer into the Mediterranian. Money smudged with CO2 existed long before the US.

And this Euro, in turn, was continuously offered by Nigerian natives local women of all ages for sex in exchange for my empty 5 gallon paint buckets. Not a single non-American on-site ever protested this noble custom, much less decline similar barters.

Plastic may be evil, but in bucket form it means steady income for the African who has one.
Mr Real

No, pepsi wouldn't put up any adds, they would just buy the competitor.
If Nortel really had something that cisco wanted bad, cisco would have just bought Nortel by now.
I'll not be surprised if they end up buying some part of it in a relatively near future.
You have to realize these were not some serious ads running on TV or in wall st journal like “NT THIS IS THE WAY”
This is just a couple of kids playing . . . probably interns or something.
yes4aapl

Thank you for entertaining us here, Hilarious_Squint. We appreciate the joke.
I wish you guys in MEN the best. Mike Z wants to monetize you.
That guy was not successful in the Mer&Acq attempts.
He failed so many times.
It's good you are focused on your work and read blogs like this just for fun.
I, on my part, am much more interested in stock performance than in your 100G!
I get from these message boards what I need for myself, for my family and friends.
As Mark Sue estimated, MEN comes with a baggage, $500 mill in liabilities tied up to MEN. Looks like total deal would be much below $500 mill expected. If Mike does not sell MEN there will be no golden parachutes for others!
Best luck!
Mark Sue Mark Sue
The analyst added that Nortel’s distressed situation means potential bidders for its Metro Ethernet assets may offer distressed prices. As a result, Nortel could decide to sell its CDMA assets as well. But Mr. Sue is not sure if Nortel can sell more than half of the company without triggering its asset sale debt covenants.

And if it needed another problem, Nortel’s already underfunded pension ($1.1-billion at the end of last year) may have more than $500-million in liabilities tied to Metro Ethernet. But with roughly 53% of the $8.1-billion plan invested in equities and assuming a decline of 40%, Mr. Sue noted that the deficit may swell to $2.8-billion.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/105883-rbc-anal…

.
broadbandbill

See, this is what I see as the real problem: misplaced hope!

The last 8 years is only a reflection of a strategy that was off target (way, way off target) during the past 20 years.

Poster HRCE is clearly correct; that old Northern Telecom DNA is still deeply embedded in Nortel’s every nook and cranny and no former GE martial artists could ever non-chuck their way out of it.

In fact, the real tragedy is the fact they (GE’s) don’t even understand the problem in the first place, which makes them the (actual) real problem. As the old saying goes, if you don’t know what the problem is, than you have just discovered it!

Btw, you just crossed the ‘optimist’ event horizon; spaghettization is just ahead…– bb

PS—Cisco wont fall so long Chambers is CEO; he’s too smart, too ambitious and way too crafty to ever allow it during his tenure. The Terminator, personified. Buckle up!
broadbandbill

Never said NT’s products are bad, they are top of the line. However, marketing, just like engineering, is also part of any corporation’s DNA. Texas Instruments, AMD, others have great R&D but it is Intel’s marketing machine that is kicking their silicon-based @$$ into sub-par players.

Nortel never paid attention to marketing because they used to own the (telecom) channel, which they lost to the likes of Cisco. Adding marketing where it did not exist before is akin to a sex change; takes a lot of hormones and a long, long time…–bb
protosphere

What “wow” as an opening line and never mind the patronizing.

Is this your contribution to topic while trying to sound sophist and evaluating others in your staged authority? Hilarious is right.

Your credibility is further blown with your pejorative sense of humor you do realize.

Let me enlighten you
The racial slander relative to contemporary ideals is profoundly absurd. You see, the Greeks shaped our western civilization with language, philosophy, mathematics, anatomy, the arts, sport, etc.., while the rest of the world lived like cavemen who engaged in not only in homosexuality (that sticks out in your mind with young boys of all things- how utterly sick) but cannibalism and incest with no language or clothes contrary to what you claim.

Did you learn anything from this because I learned what kind of people Metro Ethernet employs and your post made me feel like throwing up. Shame on you. shame. If you had any, Donkey!

Just because you lisp for a tech head does not make you artsy. You can not do anything you want, here without exposing truths from others opinions, and this was just a cowardly cheerleader subliminal hit and run by a total dufus / dork in my opinion.
InTheROUNDeye

Pretty lame, Cisco's money would have been better spent keeping their 09 sales conference. This only points to one thing, Cisco realizes the tough market and energy savings by Nortel lead to loss revenue for Cisco. I'm glad to finally validate what Nortel is saying.
Another Nortel Watcher

HS – why bother taking the time for such a meaningless post? No data? No opinions? No constructive thoughts? Just cynical venting at the people who are posting here? Nobody cares about your artistic prose. We want to know why we should continue to support the employee base of Nortel – which most people here do. When you post and say that you are a MEN employee, you are a commercial for MEN and Nortel.

Get back to work. Come back here when you have something meaningful to contribute. Don't send a message that Nortel employees are as 'empty' as the cabinet and BoD.
West

Protosphere..admit it or not, Nortel has hit Cisco harder than they might want to admit. the Green thing is just the start of a strategic and planned move to offer customers more than just an alternative to Cisco..if you know what John Chambers boasted to the media that 'Cisco sells their products at 70% margins' then you can imagine how hard the customers get locked n squeezed…

That Cisco is now playing 'catch-up' shows how much they care about the environment, let alone the customers.
less

Yeah, its so obvious that Nortel got Cisco sweating green, namely with envy. And fear.
NT stock spikes everytime an investor watches one of the Cisco commercials and subsequently puts his money on True Blue, which is the New Green.
notafan

Well done HS.

Interesting to see the names of those who took offense, isn't it?
Davey

never mind cisco, nortel blah blah blah

Am I the only one wondering why is the sound of a petrol chainsaw when he is holding an electric one?
NtOldie

Yah but my dad is stronger than your dad
less

Its not attached to some indoor emissions filter, there?!? Nah. Only Nortel would do that, indoors or anywhere. (See their “Project Chainsaw”. It has nothing to do with logging).

The environmentally aware are be gleeful, cuz Cisco's mere simulating the creation of CO2 emissions in a studio turns modern folks off to Cisco stock en masse. And products, products too.

Hm. I'll bet Cisco's electric chainsaws use 50% more than Nortel's…
puddintane

Come to think of it, the sound of coins falling to “Nortel Calculator in Action” suggests Nortel is merely penny stock.

I'd sue Cisco over that alone`.
less

notsure, you used the word “is”. How do you mean it? Purely, like Bill Clinton, or grossly distorted like every single post bb ever wrote?
less

notsure, how should we interpret Sun Tzu's repeated use of the word “is”.
less

“it is usually next to impossible to knock off or out of people's minds.”

Overseas McDonald's food is known to consist of genetically altered dead rats, Coca Cola is concocted from toxic chemicals, and Kleenex is typically packaged in, guess where, Third World sweatshops by orphaned handicapped gay girls.

Thing is, these examples don't sit back and preen about being Number One for x amount of years. They aggressively, continuously defend their market share.
broadbandbill

I don’t think you swing, period! — bb
Hilarious_Squint

Truly heartwarming to see the responses a few simple phrases have conjured up. Perhaps my ramblings, purposeless as they might be, have achieved a goal.

It has been a long and tiring day for me, others have been better, but a few more minutes are worth it if they serve to grease the wheels… so:

@ANW: Thank you for your kind words. I will certainly do as you dictate and only post when you are happy with the content, as a show of gratitude for your support. I can tell you that all Nortel employees I talk to are energized and grateful to you and others here for standing up for us in so many ways. I don't know how we would carry on if it weren't for this crowd. We had been so childish to think that being professional would be enough…

@Proto: I see history is also your forte. I'm not surprised, but your value is wasted if you post here: you should be reaching a far larger audience. How wise of you to correct my mistake and put the word 'boys' in my mouth, this donkey will remember.

@BB: Demonstrating a strong moral character to be sure, who else would be able to defend the rights of Homo Somethings? You sir are a beacon to us all.

@Puddintane: Great link, I hadn't seen those two grumpy oldmen since my childhood, but they brought back a smile. Thank you.

@yes4aapl: Although some of your posts were strange to me, this one is spot on. Could it be that you are The One? Please keep a chuckle loaded, we're going to need some in the next few weeks…

Now, I really need to disconnect. But please excuse me if I come back here from time to time to prick your avatars with my pen. I'm sure you're all fine people back at home, but often it just doesn't shine through.

- HS

PS. I almost forgot: I have the solution to all of Nortel's woes. I'm just not going to give it away on my second post, am I?
InTheROUNDeye

Cisco accusing Nortel of “Gray” marketing? Now I know they are on the right track! Any company that can sell an Ethernet switch for $22,000 with a 90 day warranty, with lower performance, must be able to “TALK” a mean game. Cisco rep called me the other day and said “Cisco now offers Active Active for the 6500 CPU” I laughed and hung up the phone.
protosphere

everyone is so happy at Nortel are they?
Liar, that's not what they say

the relentless patronizing in thanks allowed to post then go on pointing out posters is a dead giveaway.

did you really almost forget Nortel's salvation?
Like asking, “how do you keep an idiot in suspense”, with the reply, ” I will tell you tomorrow”.
hahaha… puleeeze… seek help
or please stop insulting readers' intelligence

you are not provocative, but antagonistic and crazy
broadbandbill

HS,

I strongly protest; not addressing ‘Notafan’ (who actually is a fan of yours) was totally immoral!

I don’t know which is phonier; your superficial ramblings or Web.Alive. Photo finish, to be sure…–bb

PS – Do keep us guessing. Jeez, what a drama queen (make that QUEEN).
An Old Hand

LOL!
bluecoat

This looks to be a very clever viral marketing strategy from Cisco. The story has been picked up by AllAboutNortel, and its likely, if they search Google, that many readers will find out about it here…and then go on to read the many other stories about Nortel's decline!! Double whammy!!!

It might have been better to use a Judo strategy rather than Sumo strategy

Judo Strategy

http://www.people.hbs.edu/dyoffie/html/
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2373.html
http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/files/academ…
bluecoat

clever marketing
less

Last night I saw a TV commerical by Nortel's buddy and peer, IBM, touting its BladeCenter as “green”. I Googled it and lo! theres a talking cartoon owl offering nothing but the Facts:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/migratetoibm/whyi…

But, uh, first ya gotta give the talking cartoon owl your first and last name. Just a formality, folks. Keeps spam down.
Using the Internet made with IBM and Nortel parts saves us all more electricity than the one below-mentioned Cisco phone call.

Its all become so clear to me now.
puddintane

PS: BladeCenter installation is outsourced to Handy Manny. He's cheaper, faster and100% CGI.
less

Yah but Nortel is toast baked solely via green solar energy.
notafan

i'm ok with HS not mentioning me. and i don't think he swings that way either. sorry
Another Nortel Watcher

HS, you wrote:

@ANW: Thank you for your kind words. I will certainly do as you dictate and only post when you are happy with the content, as a show of gratitude for your support. I can tell you that all Nortel employees I talk to are energized and grateful to you and others here for standing up for us in so many ways. I don't know how we would carry on if it weren't for this crowd. We had been so childish to think that being professional would be enough…

Professionalism would be great. Enjoy your lemmingness.
http://nortelinsider.wordpress.com/ Desk Jockey

Sorry that was a long post. I like posting in short form since I have trouble concentrating.

- I never claimed to be a mediator, I only point out things that are wrong when I know they are untrue. I can't speak for yes4aapl's numbers because I'm not a finance person and am not good with figures.
- Having said that, the fact that you accuse me of bias for merely pointing out the truth says more about your bias than it does for mine.
- I am not a Nortel “hater”. I would prefer to be called a Nortel “realist”, but if you choose to call me hater there is little I can do.
Fins

If you are going to blog , how about grasping your history please. This was well before Owens. Point to Roth please who said enterprise was a zero sum game for NT in 1999. Get a grip rookie. You obviously were not at the Cisco Sales Conference in Philly.
Fins

catch up….please. it takes 60+% GM's to make it in business today. Cisco playing catch up to NT? Right. You have no idea what it is to be like in their crosshairs. Ask Avaya.
Btw…what is Nortel's router and L2 share? 5%? Why bother versus 85%? Cisco has done more for philanthropy and charities than you will ever know. BTW. I am not a Cisco fan. You need a clue.
Bigballa

Cisco should do more research before wasting their time and money. The Nortel 4548GT-PWR provides power to all 48 ports not 24 ports .

http://products.nortel.com/go/product_content.j…
puddintane

Okay. So the global village is inevitable. So I must use the most cost-effective materials to save its planet. What to buy.. hmmmmm… Cisco or Nortel? Nortel or Cisco?

Neither. Extreme Networks!

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Enterprises seeking power efficient, high performance network solutions for their IT infrastructure can look to Extreme Networks Inc., as the company's Ethernet LAN switches are more efficient than Cisco and Nortel when it comes to power consumption.

Direct comparisons of network solutions conducted by Extreme Networks reflect that a full edge and core network with a VoIP solution serving 2,000 users will save customers 46 percent of energy costs when compared to Cisco and 23 percent of energy costs when compared to Nortel.

I must wholly trust the article's veracity given its origin: India. Right? Extreme is 23% cheaper than even green-oriented Nortel.

Finally, Extreme's homepage visually defines the word “GREEDY” as a fat white male round-eye eating two huge hamburgers.

Nuff said. Case closed. Extreme Networks it is for me.

http://www.extremenetworks.com/index.aspx
puddintane

Okay. So the global village is inevitable. So I must use the most cost-effective materials to save its planet. What to buy.. hmmmmm… Cisco or Nortel? Nortel or Cisco?

Neither. Extreme Networks!

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Enterprises seeking power efficient, high performance network solutions for their IT infrastructure can look to Extreme Networks Inc., as the company's Ethernet LAN switches are more efficient than Cisco and Nortel when it comes to power consumption.

Direct comparisons of network solutions conducted by Extreme Networks reflect that a full edge and core network with a VoIP solution serving 2,000 users will save customers 46 percent of energy costs when compared to Cisco and 23 percent of energy costs when compared to Nortel.

I must wholly trust the article's veracity given its origin: India. Right? Extreme is 23% cheaper than even green-oriented Nortel.

Finally, Extreme's homepage visually defines the word “GREEDY” as a fat white male round-eye eating two huge hamburgers.

Nuff said. Case closed. Extreme Networks it is for me.

http://www.extremenetworks.com/index.aspx

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