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    • « What’s Up with Nortel? | Main | Boom! Nortel Files for Bankruptcy Protection »

    Nortel Expected to File for Bankruptcy Protection

    By Mark Evans | January 14, 2009

    The Globe & Mail is reporting that Nortel is expected to file for bankruptcy protection as early as today.

    If this does materialize, it will be a stunning - but not surprising - development, and mark a precipitous decline from the heydays of the telecom boom when ex-CEO John Roth was talking about Nortel reaching $40-billion in sales.

    It will also be a sad day for Canada and its high-tech community.

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    Topics: Financials |

    Viewing 12 Comments

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      Where theres buzzwords theres, uh, deep insight: Mike Z still owns the best of them:

      "There are very significant changes happening in a very large industry, we refer to this as the world of hyper-connectivity," Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski said. "I believe we are very well positioned to do very well to profit from those significant changes in the marketplace."

      "We", the brass?

      "These actions are imperative so that Nortel can build on its core strengths and become the highly focused and financially sound leader in the communications industry that its people, technology and customer relationships show it ought to be."

      And so on.

      Yeaargh. Just when some of us have a few last dollars to bet on a Sure Thing the stock goes off the market.
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      Letter sent out to:

      Stephen Harper – Prime Minister
      Tony Clement – MP - Industry Minister
      Dalton McGuinty – Premier Ontario
      Larry O’Brien – Mayor Ottawa
      John Manley – Nortel board member

      ...Read it, talk about it, forward it...... or... sadly....do nothing.

      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      To paraphrase the Scott-Canadian Alexander Graham Bell’s (you know – the guy that invented the phone) famous first words
      “…Dr Watson come here I need you…”

      Sirs…… Nortel needs you.

      Well it’s no secret the home grown success story is struggling.
      Some say well this is part of the global melt down and nothing can be done – see US banks, the auto industry, and other sectors of the market.
      Other’s say - It’s all part of the cycle of life – the market will correct itself and all will be right as rain one day. Mind you don’t stand too close to the ‘market-correction’ wake – otherwise you will be part of the jetsam and flotsam of the economic power ship once called Canada – eh.

      However – there is something that can be done. As our representatives to this city, province, country… laws can be enacted to protect this industry as well as any other industry. Laws which state ..”I stand for Canada, Canadians, Ontarians, my communities near and far”

      Globalization is not inalienable law like the law of gravity. Globalization is a made man invention – which can and must be curtailed.
      Globalization takes manufacturing, service industry, knowledge economy offshore in search of the cheapest labour and the weakest environment safeguards.
      Globalization denudes a country of well paying positions, challenges, history, pride, with little to offer the next generation other than the promise of perpetual surfing of the next McJob.

      ..But you know this already – don’t you. You don’t need a social-political lesson from a constituent.

      But....Therein lies your responsibility, your duty. You signed up for the position you have. Now do something before the shelves are bare while there is still an opportunity.

      Here’s suggestion.. an old idea – served us well in the past – don’t see why it could not work now – Remember the ‘AutoPact’ Simple really. Southern Ontario in part became an economic powerhouse due to the auto industry with all its spin off. The auto industry was ( ‘was’ – read usurped by NAFTA, WTO ) regulated by AutoPact

      http://www.canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english/econom...

      Interesting comments below:

      "....The Auto Pact also contained safeguards for Canada to ensure that major North American car manufacturers continued their investment and production in this country. The agreement stated that for every car sold in Canada, one had to be built in Canada. Each vehicle built in Canada also had to have at least 60 percent Canadian content in both parts and labour. Tariffs were applied if these conditions were not met...
      ....The country’s high-tech automobile manufacturing industry was built in large part on the success of the Auto Pact agreement. A continuing focus on innovation, new technology, cost reduction, a skilled workforce and a stable business environment are keys to the future of the Canadian automotive industry."

      The last paragraph has all those buzz-words for the solution that you are looking for - 'stable', 'innovative', 'new', 'skilled', 'future'..
      What we need is to revive a 2009 version of an AutoPact – Call it Employment-Pact.

      Pass federal, provincial, municipal legislation to any and all manufactures, service providers, knowledge base industry – you want to sell your goods, your wares – Make sure you have someone working here in Canada, Ontario, Ottawa ….otherwise no deal.

      If Cisco, Dell, GM, want to open shop in Poland, Mexico, and India… fine go right ahead. But if you want to sell your routers, your computers, your cars here…. You got to make some here.

      All levels of governments must form a nexus to work for the common good – You as our representative must work to help your family, your neighbour, you community…

      ‘Sirs… come here we need you’
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      Great job MIke Z. Now go crawl under you rock. mANKER!!!
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      I know this a broad question but what will this really mean?
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      NT stock at $0.07 is overvalued
      Mark Sue posted target Zero for his clients.
      Mark Evans bashed him for that.
      Duncan explained it for Mark Evans what it was.
      http://disqus.com/people/67a33c3b4aff98d4c56f15...
      Mark Evans, as i respected you in the past and want you to be successful in your future endeavors, I would expect an apology for Mark Sue from you...
      It bothers me at this point...Do the right thing!
      You were just wrong. You were wrong about Nortel yesterday in your posts.
      Face the truth and I wish to see your sincere apology to Mark Sue
      disclaimer
      I am not Mark Sue
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      What Nortel "outsiders" don't realise is that the culture within the rank-and-file employees, the sense of teamwork and a genuine belief in the the strengths of many of our products and solutions are some of the things that have kept us here during the past few years and more recent months (it certainly isn't the pay or the focus and direction of our leadership team!)

      Those of us still here are trying to put a brave face on things and are trying to be "Good Nortel Citizens", getting on with our work, despite this turmoil, but are wondering how we are going to keep our family finances going if Nortel folds.

      I hope that employee jobs are saved through divisions being bought by our rival companies - they'll be acquiring some great technology as well as people who are among some of the most talented and motivated professionals in the industry and will hopefully consider themselves lucky to have us!
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      Indeed, it is sad when you consider that the only hope some Nortel employees have for their financial future lies in the ability and willingness of another company to buy up the pieces.

      This sort of sums up how executive management has treated employees: Without a care in a world, and dare I say with contempt.
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      the greatest threat to NT employees under a future acquisition is the duplicity/redundancy of their position title...for example, if CISCO acquires all or part of MEN and their sales guy for Brazil has done a good job for CISCO, the NT sales guy for Brazil is toast...I'm sure this is not news to anyone but I thought nonetheless to put it out there..obviously, recognizable talent within NT will not be jettisoned consciously by the acquiring company but you have to wonder how many NT employees there today are in a salary trap where quitting one, two or three years ago to take another job would have meant a pay cut....it is well known that when a company struggles financially, the most marketable employees start to leave and we all know that NT has gone thru over 10 layoffs since 2000
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      Nortelgirl,

      With the exception of very few companies (very few) the majority of today’s management in the US and Canada do NOT deserve the exceptional employees they have inherited, least of all the clueless and useless ‘world-classers’ at Nortel…--bb
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      A sad day, indeed. Even more sad that the past few months have been like watching an accident slowly unfold.
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      Actually, it has more like the last 3 years...--bb
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      Do we have the middle-scale high-tech communication/internet companies in Canada?
     
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