The Restructuring of All About Nortel

By Mark Evans | Published: June 24, 2009

After much thought and analysis, I’ve decided to follow the Mike Z. business approach by placing All About Nortel in blog-ruptcy protection.

Although disappointing, the rapid and troubling gutting of Nortel has left me no choice but to consider strategic options for AAN’s future and its single shareholder/creditor (aka me). At best, AAN may have six to nine months to live until Nortel runs out of cash and/or sells all its assets so it can give creditors their dough.

As a result, I’ve decided to follow Mike Z.’s lead, and slowly and methodically sell off parts of AAN even though the longer I wait, the more “value” AAN loses. Heck, I figure if this conservative approach worked for Nortel, it will work just fine for AAN.

First, I’m going to sell the comments – all 19,548 of them.

While an important asset, they likely have some value to somebody looking for a wide variety of insightful and, well, entertaining content. While it makes no sense to publicly announce the comments are for sale as opposed to waiting until a sale has been completed, I’m taking the same route Nortel took for its Metro Ethernet network and LG-Nortel businesses – announce now, worry about selling later.

While I’m at it, AAN’s blogroll, categories and RSS subscribers are also on the block. I’ll consider all offers, especially “stalking horse” bids – like the one Nokia Siemens made for Nortel’s CDMA business and LTE R&D unit – in which you get an offer and then cross your fingers that a higher bid magically comes along.

When the restructuring of AAN is completed, AAN will emerge from blog-ruptcy as a viable business based on the strength of its blog post. In a competitive landscape, shedding non-core assets, outsourcing Web hosting to a lower-cost market, and downgrading to dial-up Internet access will make AAN a more efficient and competitive entity.

Then again, I may just hold a Nortel-like firesale. Given Mike Z. is killing Nortel and, along with it AAN, I may have to take what I can get!

(On a serious note, people have asked how long I continue to write AAN. Truth be told, I’ll keep going until the bitter end. It’s a sad, disappointing, alarming and fascinating story about a company that has crumbled in less than a decade. While it’s a bit like watching the Titanic hit the ice berg and sink, it’s still, nevertheless, interesting.)

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  • CrazyCanuk

    For many Nortel employees, AAN remains their number one source of information about Nortel. Internally, it's a mushroom factory.

  • horace_grimswold

    Mark,

    I will offer you $100,000 for All About Nortel, all in nicely rolled $20 greenbacks, delivered by a Brinks trunk promptly today. Deal or no deal?

    (in following Mike Z's negotiating spirit, I expect you to arrogantly decline the offer and wait until court-appointed AAN receivership allows me to swoop in and purchase all CDMA-related topics and any banter written in green 10-point font for $25 in Tim Horton's gift certificates).

  • kennethn2000

    Mark,

    Thank you for all your time and effort in running this site. I was a Nortel employee for 12 years (straight out of college, when it was Northern Telecom). I got laid off this past March and this site has been my prime source of information. By the time I read any news on the Wall Street Journal or CNN or Businessweek, it has been on this site for days already. So AAN was very informative. Luckily, I am starting a new job soon at another company. But I've made a lot of friends at Nortel over the years. It was a great company. It is a shame.

  • Frank Burch

    You have beem a bright spot in an otherwise hellish goat rodeo…

  • gmg733

    What does your KEIP look like?

    Hehehehehehehehe

  • Still_With_Nortel

    Mark,

    Thanks a lot for all your time and effort. AAN has been prime source of information about Nortel for a long time now.

  • Milan_Bekich

    Speaking candidly, AAN should survive until at least the end of the year. The piece-parting process will take months and tales of the aftermath will probably be entertaining for at least another month or two.

    In the interim, has anyone heard anything out of Nortel Government Solutions Holding Corporation? One of my former direct reports is nominally employed there and she claims that Nortel Government Solutions Holding Corporation is above the fray and prospering (appropriate given that the offices are located on Prosperity Avenue).

    Milan

  • Ematerials

    I'm really surprised NT lasted this long. I was with them for 22 years before getting the sack in 2001. The problem with NT all along has been bad management from the D-level's on up. The real losers in all this are going to be the pensioners. According to the latest news reports NT's PBO and OPEB are under funded. Who knows what these folks will be left with when the dust settles.

  • ACloseObserver

    I wish you had created an All About Sun Microsystems blog, too. The management there has also been spectacularly bad.

  • jygafort

    If my comment is not published on AAN (post Blog-rupty date), can I create a Creditor Comitee to seek for compensation from the proceedings of AAN sale?

  • Double_Ew_TF

    A little tidbit of interest that may offer some insight into the recent “Selling off pieces” mentality of our leaders…

    KEIP/KERP to the upper mucky mucks is dependent on certain performance factors, including sales, cost reduction, customer issue resolution etc… However, the whole payout is being split up until June of 2010… 'Should' the business be sold however, full payment of KEIR/KERP will be paid out right away. There was never a plan to come out of ch11. I believe the decision to bury Nortel was made last year, well, actually the decision was made for us when the BoD hired this criminal.

  • jimcarroll

    I'd like to big on any uses of the word “hyperconnectivity” within your blog.

    “Carroll throws a dart at hyperconnectivity”

    /www.allaboutnortel.com/2007/05/11/carroll-knows-darts-at-hyperconnectivity/

    (-;

  • protosphere

    We now spell it “hyperconactivity” in Nortel's case =)

  • protosphere

    Oh please don't let it slide before the fraud trials begin on both sides of the border.

    This bog will be fascinating with plenty of enlightening commentary to invaluably assist shedding even more light on the facts and proceedings.

    I suspect the Department of Justice might greatly appreciate our input to stalk the singing snakes and those they hold close relationships.

    Why not assist facilitating exposure before the very public and endless lives they have literally destroyed for exorbitant greed and callous disregard right into their final days where they are forced to testify on bonuses and severances only to torch the farm the very next day.

  • protosphere

    “actually the decision was made for us when the BoD hired this criminal.”

    They couldn't have such a high profile Owens burden disgrace beyond buffering the fraud nightmare. Better some one green, even paying the fall guy a premium to defraud his past employer who passed him by, let him promte his pas before Bankruptcy Binning, then ya…

    Selling manufacturing for efficiency sake should have raised red flags given Nortel once had quality products made in Canada.

    Nortel lies with clever representation, The aggregate is contradiction is so overwhelming now, even they have to run and hide by shutting down the dried cash cow but not before looting the corpse. Amazing how anyone well spoken comes out smelling like roses, look at Mulrooney with bells on, an answer for everything amid overwhelming circumstances, like sweating Mikey sporting a smirk before torching the place the very next day. =)

  • ChaiTea

    If I get a girlfriend named Inga from Finland, do I automatically qualify for being the stalking horse for the CDMA & LTE portion of the blogs?

    Oh I almost forgot.. I will also make sure that I get a loan from EDC for maintaining Inga and also the blog portion you sell to me :-)

  • Asset_Number_XXX

    Love it!! :)

  • broadbandbill

    Mark,

    Have you considered relocating this blog to 'lower cost geographies' in order to minimize cost and optimize your restructuring process…—bb

    PS—Your post is very funny.

  • NT_DFW

    Hi Milan,

    Joel indicated on a GIS this week that negotiations to-date have NGS staying with ES.

  • Sword_Fish

    Fresh News, Avaya Made an offer for the enterprise unit for 500 M, will Nortel take it or ask for a lower numbe?

    http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/062309-no…

  • less

    Oh, and “less” we forget: I am the recognized leader in delivering communiques incapable that enhanced Nortel's sometimes inhumane experiences, ignite and power global converse, and secure and dissect the worlds most critical information…. about what all went wrong.

    In all, I'd be happy with $1000 in my pocket.

  • less

    lol – Chinese characters use less space, ergo bandwidth, no?

    (It might be added here that the (Nortel) color blue is a prmary color and doesn't need to be mixed with a second, thereby saving Nortel more $$$ than those many other two-tone, two-bit, two-timing, double-dipping competitors)

  • voicecustomer

    Mark, We will need a picture of you with a smug look on you face as if you are going to tell a lot of people half truths, miss statements. Please have a poster in back so we can add our own statements. On it, add a picture of so animals of your own choose.

    Mine are:

    SEVERANCE = $0
    REDUCED TWITTER – %63
    Mark’s Bonuses = laughter

    Animals – Flying Pigs.

    What is everyone else’s…

  • dljvjbsl

    Today, I am announcing a bid for the entirety of Nortel for $100 billion US dollars. This is conditional on me receiving a $101USD billion loan from the Canadian government which will be repayable in Nortel convertible debentures

  • less

    I'll bid to haul them old computers and copper out

  • yes4aapl

    Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method utilized by various radio communication technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards called cdmaOne and CDMA2000 (which are often referred to as simply “CDMA”), which use CDMA as an underlying channel access method.

    One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single communication channel. This allows several users to share a bandwidth of frequencies. This concept is called multiplexing. CDMA employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel. By contrast, time division multiple access (TDMA) divides access by time, while frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) divides it by frequency. CDMA is a form of “spread-spectrum” signaling, since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than the data being communicated.

  • Milan_Bekich

    Hmmm does NGS hold contracts for non-ES NT product or services?

    If so I can see interesting times ahead when the new third party owners of non-ES components price their content into NGS deliverables.

    Alas poor Mara, often wrong but never in doubt…

    Milan

  • ntpurgatory

    Oh great… Now my blog posts are 'stayed' in blog-ruptcy protection. Now I have to go fill out a bunch of paperwork and file as a 'creditor'. If lucky, perhaps since I've only posted about 15 times, I'll be 'creditor' number 19,000. Perhaps I better write this off…

  • NortelGal

    Very true. Even our director talks about reading AAN. We used to read it furtively, almost guiltily; now, everyone talks about it openly. It's the best source of information we on the inside have.

    Blog-ruptcy….brilliant! :-)

  • zeroman

    Mark

    If you are willing I'd like to write a few books with you.

    Nortel: how to flush $10 billion

    Nortel: Greatness to Dead in 3 years

    Talk of a dud CEO. How not to hire one.

    If interested give me a call. It will only be available on kindle published in all official languages.

  • zeroman

    they will take 350M in 2 months.

  • zeroman

    did the US $ just become a peso or a lira

  • zeroman

    i thought of that just reading the post above yours. its a natural instinct now

  • less

    Come to think of it I would sell my Fluke meter to see Gates and Hackney discuss the future of the Microsoft-Nortel UC:

    http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/062409-no…

    Nortel's liquidation of its assets could possibly gut the 3-year-old unified communications partnership the company has with Microsoft.

    The pair forged a relationship in 2006 that resulted in what they called the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA), a plan to jointly develop, sell and roll out UC and VoIP technology to corporate customers over a four-year period.

    Mainly because:

    Autistic children sometimes suffer sudden panics or rages, and scream or hit out uncontrollably.
    If he strongly disagrees with whatyou're saying, [Gates] is in the habit of blurting out, 'That's the stupidest f…ing thing I've ever heard!' People tell stories of Gates spraying saliva into the face of some hapless employee.

    I think I know how Hackney might respond to criticism….

  • ibeleiveinnortel

    Peeple, you just have to beleive in ANN! What is all this poop about restructurd AAN? Think postive peons! Mark is a brilliant guy, he can lead this blog outa the darkeness into the light! As a hugely affective but slightly gullable (former) manger, I find all this negativity about Norhell and ANN really negative! I took the followership edge at Norhell you know, and I beleive that I have at least 6 of tthe 7 habits of highly affective peeple. Z plan has now been revealed in all its majestic beauty and wisdom. I am personally shocked and awed by Z plan. GEniunely amazed at the extraordinary leadership of Z. Sahme on all you non-beleivers!

  • exnt_x_2

    You must be chinese.

  • exnt_x_2

    “… Chinese characters use less space, ergo bandwidth, no?”

    No. It's that there's so much more of you.

  • exnt_x_2

    “I'm really surprised NT lasted this long. I was with them for 22 years before getting the sack in 2001.”

    And the bitch of of it is, they made you feel it was your problem in getting the sack at the time.

  • exnt_x_2

    And remember … grab everything proprietary while walking out the door. It's the only severance you'll ever see.

  • less

    How long? How about 12-18 months?

  • nfuiry

    will the ANN plan include the firing (with Nortel 30 minute policy to clean out your desk) of the ENTIRE FIELD SALES like Avaya's Leadership plans to?

  • Musicvideos1

    I am surprised how to flush $10 billion company in just 3 years.
    Jazz

  • Musicvideos1

    I am surprised how to flush $10 billion company in just 3 years.
    Jazz

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