Nortel Bankruptcy Hurts Laptop Program

Nortel is a globally recognized technology leader focused on forward-faced core synergies leveraging into hyperconnectivity. Business made simple, lean and strong.

Oops. That was a no-brainer.

hehe… This is Nortel.

CHORUS !!!

When the JC-Is cry
they found out that we lied
cause to secure our bling
out door we them fling.

…save Greenpeace, PETA, and ATWA.

Excellent succinct analysis, couldn't have said it better.

There are those that talk and those that do. Though the two groups are not mutually exclusive for Mr. Roese, he most definitely fell into only the former group.

What a stupid campaign this was.
Children in less developed countries need food, shelter and parents who
stay home and don't cross the border illegally.
They don't need laptops.

Who cares ?

This is something that SOLVENT companies do, not INSOLVENT ones !

MC

There is nothing that Nortel has done, can do, will do, that will make anyone o this blog happy – because it's likely impossible for them to emerge from their current situation. So what has this blog become? Everyone tries desperately to find news, but there isn't any. And any time of general discussion ends with one of the “Top Commenters” saying something to either stop the thread or send it off on a tangent. Sometimes I think this blog is just like the Nortel executives: an old boys club that operates on group think – a mutual adoration society that shuns those who don't support the ideology. Come on boys, get out the rut and give us all something intelligent to talk about. The readers are BORED.

I would suggest canning Z and company (without severance) would make lots of people on this blog happy. So there are things Nortel could do…

While Nortel will have to continue laying people off at very least Nortel could stop behaving in an utterly despicable manner – laying off Brits in violation of the law, giving Americans an apparent choice of their pension or their severance… Stopping might not make anyone 'happy' but I certainly would like to be not sickened.

That said, it if very true that given the lack of information, the number of words appearing in this blog is 'interesting'. And yeah the loudest and/or most persistent voice tend to dominate any discussion (internet or not)

The internet is supposed to be the great equalizer. Instead it just epitomizes what happens in real life. People congregate with other like minded people. It's more fun and less contentious. This blog is no different. I read the blog in hopes to find new information about what is going on, because I cannot get Nortel out of my blood (it's like a disease these days). I am growing increasingly disappointed with the lack of insight of the top commenters. Sometimes I wonder if they comment just to be heard. Maybe there is a prize for the one who reaches 1000 first?

I have spent the past 6 hours or so engaging in conversation on this blog. I'm surprised at how time consuming it can be, and how unrewarding it can be. I am sure I have become annoying to quite a few by now. Wondering how my experiment is working.

To be clear OBPC is a great cause but it has attracted at least ONE self-benefiting person whose name is John Roese. Negro a great guy but cant see beyond his nose as it relates to 'supporters'…–bb

Good read NE, remind me not to play poker w/you . Yes I am bored because we are beating a dead horse and it is no longer fun. We should all just sign off, period (not as easy as it sounds)…–bb

Uhhh, welcome to the Internet. Where have you been for the last decade or so? You expected this blog to be magically different than the rest of the net?

Was there insight in this post?

It sounds more like IBIN got a new ID.

Ronald Alepian ?.

No new ID. Been NortelEmp all along. Not a believer. Just looking for a good read and having a really hard time finding it. Getting very frustrated at the lack of news. Hoping that if I poke you all enough someone will say something incredibly intelligent and we can all have some fun again.

I have to agree with NortelEmp, the 'top commenters' typically do not have any insight into Nortel other than their own (negative) point of view.

I keep looking for some intelligent debate so to what Nortel might look like after restructuring. Clearly a number of options are being considered and management are considering several plans, so not all the roumors will come to pass. This is normal, shop everything to multiple bidders and take the best option that leaves you with the strongest company after. You have a plan going in but have to consider all options.

But any debate on this subject seems to start with the premise that 'everything is being sold, all the roumors are true' and degenerates into 'management are selling everything so they can make off with the cash' pretty quickly.

And of course anyone who does not subscribe to this thinking is flamed by the masses. I guess the internet is the great equalizer – it's just that we all slump to the lowest common denominator….

finally people are beginngin to think a bit more positively, thank you! i can understand what your saying, many people immediatly starting saying very bad things towrads me just because i choose to think about what i can do to help, instead of just believing all the rumors and negative unreal press.

really its quite unfair that different view points are dismissed as being kool aid drinkers or people who are just stupid. really people grow up!

Agree!

NOrTEL is dead already …. at least, some one don't want it alive anymore. They always tried to figure out a best way to anatomize, no treatment.

These guys didn't care the company's future but only their own profits.

When CH11 came I thought it could have been a somewhat positive move for NT: i.e. it would renegotiate debt, it would cancel contracts it didn't want or need, it would get the creditors off their back, etc.
But then we started seeing all the rumors about selling the different divisions… I agree that the sale of some assets is necessary, but not complete divisions or core assets.
How can there be a Nortel if there are not enough products/people to generate a profit?
There are two main stakeholders the way I see it: the creditors and the employees. I am not sure anyone is representing the employees. Ideally the executives should, but I am not sure that is the case.
Maybe it is, maybe they think that by selling divisions that employees going to that new company will have a better future, but who knows…
If I were a creditor I would like the company to make lots of profit so I could get close to 100 cents on the dollar, instead of liquidating and getting roughly 10 cents on the dollar, but we know that many bank and investors are too greedy and too stupid. We wouldn't be in this world financial crisis if it weren't for them…

To be clear, OLPC was a program in Nortel before John Roese was even a twinkle in MZ's eye. John Roese just jumped on the publicity bandwagon when he arrived.

Let's also be clear that John Roese brought NOTHING to Nortel, not even web.alive. His contribution towards a Nortel turnaround was close to ZERO (or worse), which puts him in the same company as Zafirovsky, Carey, Hackney, Riedel, and Wendt. Lowe is a little different than this bunch because he's been stumbling along adding no personal value to Nortel for years and years.

Problem is, when you crack a window at 30,000 feet, especially at the front end of a plane, nobody survives.

I too am frustrated by the lack of information. But the folks who actually know what is going on aren't going to talk to us – if they talk to anyone, it's apparently the WSJ since that's the only source providing new insights (certainly nothing truthful is coming from Nortel internally). Basically everything we read on this blog is someone's best guess based on their particular view and prejudices. So it is small wonder that things degrade so quickly…

That being said, here's what my crystal ball sees happening over the next couple of months: the current band of Nortel execs will sell off Enterprise and Carrier Networks (after breaking it up into smaller chunks for ease of sale, perhaps) for the highest of some seriously low bids, then seek to emerge with their ranks intact overseeing MEN and Global Services. The GSM and UMTS Core functions will be liquidated and the Government Solutions company will be spun off (never really fit anyway – Owens just had to buy something he understood, and the U.S. Military Industrial Complex is something he understands – unlike, say, telecommunications)…

Whatever does emerge from Nortel's protection – assuming the creditors allow anything to emerge – will have an extremely bloated senior management layer, since none of the buyers sniffing around seem at all interested in retaining Nortel's executive brain trust, thinking that their own mgmt teams (which have somehow managed to avoid bankruptcy in the same global economy that swamped our fearless leaders) is better suited to exploit Nortel's technology and customer bases. And since Nortel's current leaders honestly seem to think that THEY are technical wizards (e.g. no one with any direct technical responsibility was considered for a KEIP or KERP bonus), they will be sure to retain themselves above all others in the New Nortel. So the New Nortel will be top-heavy with execs from the divisions that got sold off – gonna be hard to maintain a decent bonus structure that way on severely diminished corporate income!

But whether the creditors allow anything to emerge from protection is still very much up in the air, IMHO. One legal strategy being pushed by lawyers representing some of the laid-off employees who lost severance is to hold Nortel hostage and not allow any option other than total liquidation unless those severances are paid. If that card gets played in earnest, then liquidation is almost certain, as the money for severances has all gone to KEIP & KERP bonuses, and trying to claw them back will only inflate the legal fees which get paid off the top (reducing whatever is left at the bottom for us “stakeholders” to fight over). Nortel's ELT have already shows that when pressed they to make the “difficult choice” between their own bonuses and paying legally owed severance, their bonuses win out every time (that being a “best practice” for companies in our position, according to the consultants Mike Z hired).

Pretty gloomy stuff! With any luck it will all be over soon, one way or the other, and our pins & needles wait will finally pass…

Not at all, the laptop has a mesh stack embedded, so every computer can act as a mesh node and build a network between the laptops in the same coverage zone, do not need any infrastructure at all, only a regular wi-fi access point to access internet. May be it could be a good research lab for testing new things but both environments (nomad mesh laptops vs. mesh infrastructure) is quite different…

This is funny.

Say you board a Greyhound and the bus craps out in the middle of nowhere. The driver gets on the phone to call for help, but none comes, the cops come and go but can't take passengers, other passersby aren't going where you need to be.

So what to do? Believe you can fix the bus and start tinkering around yourself? The driver doesn't allow that, because Greyhound doesn't want that.
Gonna kick the tires and praise the Greyhound's tires' air pressure? Hm. The windows could use a cleaning. Why not donate some underwear and wipe one clean one for the team. Heck, wipe em all. For how long?

Gonna whip out your suitcase and pass the stashed beer and a joint around?

After a while everyones shown their insipid grainy, pet and family pics around, told their lame life stories, about how their jobs at Nortel still rule. Thats supposed to fix the bus? “Everyone needs to act “positive” and turn a bad time into an impromptu Magic Bus/ Love Bus event.”

How about everyone calls everyone they know they never realized how lovely the evening breeze in the desert could be, and that they recommend Greyhound to all for that reason alone. Tell those waiting for you to see things in a positive light, despite the global warming.

Missed a job interview? Pah. Maybe Greyhound is hiring mechanics….. hyuk,hyuk.

In the end, most everyone takes to diddling insipidly with their Blackberrys trying to ignore the blowhard alpha jocks and Barbie cheerleaders trying to “entertain” their captive audience. until something Real happens. Most mortals are too polite and/or meek to tell 'em to STFU.

Somebody needs to tell Mike Z to fix the damn bus, or get off it, already, but he's still not listening.

I meant a wireless mesh network. That “regular wi-fi access point” can easily be an AP72xx (if Nortel still sells 'em). My point was that I believe Nortel's involvement in OLPC came from the MIT wireless mesh work. Nortel was working with MIT on the mesh technology and then this program was partially linked to it. As a few have noted, John R. didn't start the OLPC child relationship. It was around for a while, in different forms.