How Today’s Wireless Auction Works

By Mark Evans | Published: July 24, 2009

With today’s auction of Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets underway, there’s some questions about how the process works.

LightReading’s Craig Matsumoto has all the details. In summary, the auction works like this:

1. Bids had to be filed by Tuesday so RIM isn’t participating in today’s auction because it wouldn’t comply with the bidding process.

2. After the initial bids, Nortel will reveal the highest bid. Then, everyone has a chance to make another bid but it has to be at least $5-million higher.

But – and here’s the big but – the process make not be over even though Nortel is expected to announce the winning bid today.

According to Matsumoto, the winning bid must be approved by the U.S. bankruptcy court. Nortel will submit the recommendation on July 28 for court approval.

But – another this is another big but – Nortel’s creditors and stakeholders can object to the process.

Bottom Line: Stay tuned because it’s not over ’til it’s over.

Update: Reuters has a story on RIM’s Jim Balsillie, and his aggressive moves on Nortel and the National Hockey League.


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← Older Comments
  • Theleftbehind

    run out of money

  • Soon2BExNortel

    Out of 25,000 employees, he's the only one who knows his fate. Must be nice.

  • Soon2BExNortel

    Unreal, sounds like NSN fumbled at the goal line & Ericcson ran it back for a touchdown (assuming this gamble pays off for them in the long-term). Thanks, again.

  • Moose_Chaser

    Keep practicing English in the mirror,
    you inept jackass.

    MC

  • yes4aapl

    Ciena to be the Stalking horse to be announced within 10 days.
    —-
    re
    so called Nortel won't last so long…
    Nortel will be finished on July 30

  • yes4aapl

    does it mean that RIMM can get it for $1.1 bill anyway?

  • NTInfidel

    I don't think so. Ericsson doesn't seem interested in the employees, it is just that they are part of the deal, they seem even less interested in Nortels LTE employees as Ericsson already has a strong LTE program that won the Verizon contract. There is no installed Nortel LTE to support. They don't need Nortels LTE folks at all. They need the CDMA folks to service the installed base of Nortel CDMA equipment.

  • NTInfidel

    Well I consider this the worse case for LTE employees. NSN was serious about integrating out LTE work and building a North American center here.

    If you read Ericsson PR it is pretty clear they have no interest in the LTE employees.

    MP I think would have failed, but they would have needed everyone until they realized they screwed up.

    But E// will be looking to minimize people coming in and I expect the pink slips in a later cull.

    Not good.

  • GoProto

    :0} thanks for the humor .. very well needed ..

  • GoProto

    Why do you think he was The Chosen One?

  • GoProto

    “We will recreate what once was a great company…”… today…a 115 year old company destroyed, employees fired w/o severances, sr exec with bonuses and some fired employees committing suicide…

    —————————————————————-
    re
    thanks for putting it all out there in such a poignant fashion. very, very sad.. but don't forget about karma.. he'll get his.. how do you think his ego feels now after being known as the loser who killed a great company? Not only does the business world think (now know) he is inept, we think what he did may be criminal, and his wife and kids must be mortified.

  • nortelex

    I cant believe that incompetent loser Richard Lowe continues to benefit.

    I guess he holds them hostage until they figure out the business.

    Karma will be with you Richard.

  • borissss

    Why are they obliged to bid for cvas?

  • borissss

    absolutely.CVAS,MEN and JV employees will really suffer.Netas and LG-Nortel is nothing without Nortel.I think they will not even get their severance packages.What a misery…

  • borissss

    probably.I think they just wanted to kill NSN and widen the NA customer portfolio.

  • less

    “uncertainty for some of you. That is understandable”

    Mike the seer: there were many bidders, some of you feel uncertain

    Mike the analyst: US$1.13 billion is clear proof that a tough market has not diminished the value

    Its clear to me that, truly, many NT competitors have somehow managed to turn some kind of profit in spite of the “tough market”.

  • ChaiTea

    Kudos to you for breaking the info to all of us before anyone else did. Many Thanks.

    Wasn't 975M$ max limit from NSN extremely short sighted? If NSN was prepared to go higher as much as $1.4B then NSN could have recovered their investment in 3 years (with diminishing revenues taken into account over years), and would have got a strong foothold in NA. But they chose not to risk, and hence they lost this fantastic opportunity. Pretty short sighted in my opinion.

    I am interested in your opinion.

  • henry71

    The NSN “Welcome Nortel employees” link has been taken off their website. What a shame.

  • cherishottawa

    NSN will receive $25 million breakup fee according to the stalking horse agreement, won't it?

  • Guest

    Well I consider this the worse case for LTE employees. NSN was serious about integrating the LTE work and building a North American center around operations here.

    If you read Ericsson PR it is pretty clear they have no interest in the LTE employees.

    MP I think would have failed, but they would have needed everyone until they realized they screwed up.

    But E// will be looking to minimize people coming in and I expect the pink slips in a later cull.

    Not good.

  • GoProto

    :0} thanks for the humor .. very well needed ..

  • GoProto

    Why do you think he was The Chosen One?

  • GoProto

    “We will recreate what once was a great company…”… today…a 115 year old company destroyed, employees fired w/o severances, sr exec with bonuses and some fired employees committing suicide…

    —————————————————————-
    re
    thanks for putting it all out there in such a poignant fashion. very, very sad.. but don't forget about karma.. he'll get his.. how do you think his ego feels now after being known as the loser who killed a great company? Not only does the business world think (now know) he is inept, we think what he did may be criminal, and his wife and kids must be mortified.

  • nortelex

    I cant believe that incompetent loser Richard Lowe continues to benefit.

    I guess he holds them hostage until they figure out the business.

    Karma will be with you Richard.

  • borissss

    Why are they obliged to bid for cvas?

  • borissss

    absolutely.CVAS,MEN and JV employees will really suffer.Netas and LG-Nortel is nothing without Nortel.I think they will not even get their severance packages.What a misery…

  • borissss

    probably.I think they just wanted to kill NSN and widen the NA customer portfolio.

  • less

    “uncertainty for some of you. That is understandable”

    Mike the seer: there were many bidders, some of you feel uncertain

    Mike the analyst: US$1.13 billion is clear proof that a tough market has not diminished the value

    Its clear to me that, truly, many NT competitors have somehow managed to turn some kind of profit in spite of the “tough market”.

  • ChaiTea

    Kudos to you for breaking the info to all of us before anyone else did. Many Thanks.

    Wasn't 975M$ max limit from NSN extremely short sighted? If NSN was prepared to go higher as much as $1.4B then NSN could have recovered their investment in 3 years (with diminishing revenues taken into account over years), and would have got a strong foothold in NA. But they chose not to risk, and hence they lost this fantastic opportunity. Pretty short sighted in my opinion.

    I am interested in your opinion.

  • henry71

    The NSN “Welcome Nortel employees” link has been taken off their website. What a shame.

  • cherishottawa

    NSN will receive $25 million breakup fee according to the stalking horse agreement, won't it?

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