Parliamentary Committee to Hold Emergency Hearing

The term “emergency” sounds urgent.

In Alcatel's case, there was no other Canadian company willing to take their UMTS. In this case, there is interest by RIM to keep the LTE patents right here.

Although I think the sale will be difficult to block, not impossible, given it needs government approval.

Had NSN won the bid (with EDC support already in place to boot), they too would and have boasted their benefit to Canada to push the sale through.

Albeit unlikely, it would be refreshing to see the government intervene and do the right thing to keep the technology they invested so heavily in with taxpayers money right here.

I would rather they keep it here for all the bungling Nortel has done from acquisitions to selling assets. I also feel it is about time the government got involved from forcing inquiry to reviewing sale of assets they financed to maintain Nortel under so much benefit of doubt and enormous liberties and protection. Some one has to do the right thing and battle these Goliath's legal might and who better than he who writes the laws, the government.

It seems Basille has some powerful friends in Ottawa but I can't see how they are doing more than humoring him.

This “emergency” hearing shouldn't take long. If they drag it out it just means more lost jobs in Canada.

Its Just Political Game at the End. Nothing to with saving Nortel or stopping the Sale

Now they are having “Emergency” meetings? Why now? It makes them look like fools, or like people with a hidden agenda because if they really were concerned they would have stepped up to the plate months and months ago.
It's embarrassing to be addressing it now IMHO because it seems manipulative at best. Nothing will come of it. Instead of looking into the CDMA/LTE sale-they should “focus” (for Z..) on getting their citizen's severence and pension payments to be honored as they should have been. That would be an appropriate cause for an “Emergency Meeting”, eh?

If the federal government really wanted to protect Nortel, it would have provided financial support months ago

Do you really think that money would have solved Nortel's problems?

They were swimming in money during the bubble and what did tHey do with it?

I saw some of the telecom resumes during the first rounds of layoffs. Most of these people got jobs and are stil working. The people were good but the projects that I saw described in these resumes were unbelievable What was really unbelievable was that they were funded in the first place – web surfing from your digital telephone on DMS?? What customer would ever want it?

So the opposite of Mikes annual 12-18 month restructuring plans.

Mark,

First of all, the US did squeak a fair bit when Lucent and Alcatel merged. But it is important to remember that it WAS a merger, and the first CEO was the former head of Lucent, not Alcatel.

Second (and more relevantly, IMO) Lucent is/was a fairly big tech company in the US with many employees and innovation. But its RELATIVE importance is nowhere near what Nortel's has been to Canada. Nortel was our largest tech company by revenues, was the single biggest spender on R&D (by 4x the next biggest), etc etc.

Whether or not the feds should step in, the significance of Nortel (or its component divisions) to Canada's tech community is roughly 10x or more what Lucent was to the equivalent US community. Regardless of what happens, its breakup, sale or whatever will leave a big hole.

Do you really think that money would have solved Nortel's problems?
mtvessel
===
re
Nortel would have as much $$$ as they wanted if they wanted to play fair with shareholders. Nortel wanted to get rid off shareholders and exit public markets and public scrutiny.
Fraud after fraud after fraud
even now they defrauded employees but managers get bonuses.
In Pension Plan there is $3-4 bill missing. Pensioners are defrauded
Creditors are defrauded of their money!
Nortel has no Plan of restructuring but still does not want to work in the best interest of creditors. Creditors complain about that.
3 years of GEniuses failures and they still are rewarded big $$$.

Zafirovski's smug face disgusts me. Every image of him in an uncontrolled environment has the same expression and carries a tag line, “You can't touch me.” or “Hey, not my fault.” or “I just want this over. Give me my money and let me outta here.”

Some more GEnius news…

“General Electric Co. will pay a $50 million civil penalty to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the conglomerate of improper accounting in order to make its financial results appear more attractive to investors”

http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/2009080…

Just can't get away from the fraud it seems

Not sure how the government or Canadian people invested taxpayer's money in LTE patents. If you're thinking tax credits, those are only useful when you're profitable, which Nortel hasn't been for some time. As for the EDC, anything they've supported has been on commercial terms – they're a business like any other, just a little more willing to loan. Generally speaking, Nortel money has flowed *into* the country as foreign buyers pick up gear, providing funds to support Canadian engineers and pay the various payroll and other taxes these employees must pay.

And a general comment: cite your sources people, back-up your “facts”, and we can have some intelligent discourse. Otherwise, just claiming a thing is so don't make it so.

Not sure how the government or Canadian people invested taxpayer's money in LTE patents. If you're thinking tax credits, those are only useful when you're profitable, which Nortel hasn't been for some time.
===
re
You shine, man
I love all your posts on this blog
IQ above 140
you said
Major disclaimer: I'm a hypocrite hiding behind a pseudonym!
ok
come back to the topic

Not sure how the government or Canadian people invested taxpayer's money in LTE patents. If you're thinking tax credits, those are only useful when you're profitable, which Nortel hasn't been for some time.
…
let me ask you a hypothetical question
Is it possible RIM is in arrangements with Save Nortel group?
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Tech+vets…

If so, the Group wants to change the law and use the tax credits Nortel accumulated for years as Nortel has not been profitable for ages.

.

Nortel has been eating its own bulls##t for so long that it actually believes its own nonsense. Now Parliament is voluntarily getting sucked in to this vortex of shenanigans?

haha
good point
facts?
what facts?
from the Nortel's propaganda or from Nortel's critics point of view?

You sound like a pretentious like TongeInCheeks. Since when is “intelligent discourse”, as you sophistly put it oh holier than thou, contrary to what the media says.

They have leached off the government so long, even buyers of its business want in on the action.

Also, Nortel has also become an extension of our Universities, it is a regulated, and has burdened our markets with disgrace.

Are you aware of government subsidies for a University education, multiply that by the number of engineers they employed at their peak and they have since lost. Now also consider how many have turned to Unemployment Insurance, even today since they cut severances.

And what foreign money with a pay happy payroll of bonuses. The EDC is a crown corporation, taxpayer funded, failed loans are not repaid.

As for the tax credits you mention, they were listed as their largest asset for years on books they sought to clean, and they are being sued for misleading.

There are also shareholder losses to fraud that more than burden government than people directly, as in lies for theft. This is one big bull in a China shop thankfully gone.

The main argument in the media is to keep the technology that was funded by Canadians stay in Canada.

If you think money has flown into the country by foreign buyers their insolvency begs to differ. As for their payroll, who's? Pay practices are laughable.

What mentality pumps this corpse on the premise it never burdened Canadian taxpayers. How about Canadian and US investors? Didn't burden them either providing a wonderfiul capital loss? right? hahaha… there can be only one explanation…

I have written documentation that Richardson, where I worked, is a Center of Excellence. Who/what ya gonna trust?

Where were these clowns when Nortel ship was slowly sinking? Canadian politicians are worse than Americans.

Talk about Being Criminal.
The gov't bail out bolt turners and won't touch nortel yet here is how your hard
earned dollars are put to work.
Only in Canadud.

“Let's hope for example, that the promises made by our political leaders to raise immigration levels and provide more money for immigrant organizations are not kept”.
“The 2.5 million immigrants who came to canada between 90 and 02 received
18.3 BILLION MORE in governemnt services than they paid in taxes”
“This amont is more than the federal government spent on health care and twice what was spent on defence in 2001/2002″
“We have already experienced the impact mass migration has had had on health, education, traffic, social services and crime rates of our three major urban centers”
“Only 18 to 20 percent of our immigrants are selected for economic factors. The vast majority..the rest…are sponsored by relatives or because of so called humanitarian reasons and none of them have to meet the points system of selection”

“Setting up more official bilingualism and multicultural review boards and pouring
money into both.”
Remind me what is wrong with this? you have issues with speaking anything but english, I guess

Exactly. I doubt if the whole truth and nothing but the truth will even be unraveled ever when it comes to exactly who did what in this fraud laden team of Recognized Leaders to borrow Less's terminology. Propaganda- interesting word when it comes to a corporation's mentality don't you think..look at all they did, and GE did regarding false financial statements all in the name of “looking good”, a superficial layer of sugar covering a vat of lies and more lies even now.

“The House of Commons industry committee will hold six hours of televised hearings tomorrow on Nortel, which is in bankruptcy protection in Canada and the United States.”
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1863773

Who's bringing the popcorn?? and beer to cry in?? BTW-
No, TiC, it doesn't look like 15 minutes set aside to me.

“Let's hope for example, that the promises made by our political leaders to raise immigration levels and provide more money for immigrant organizations are not kept”.
“The 2.5 million immigrants who came to canada between 90 and 02 received
18.3 BILLION MORE in governemnt services than they paid in taxes”
“This amont is more than the federal government spent on health care and twice what was spent on defence in 2001/2002″—No different than our American politicians. This is national cultural suicide and defies common sense. Unfettered immigration is increasingly resulting in immigrants not willing to assimilate, but transplanting their culture into our society and basically “Balkanizing” the USA. Canada and every western european government is going down the same path. All for the sake of not offending someone. In the USA the illegal immigrants have more services-free healthcare, free college, free schooling- than citizens.

nyt and less- This is not being prejudiced against other cultures or ethnicities, it is common sense. I don't have a problem with organized, sensible and controlled immigration. All of our ancestors were immigrants at one time.

However, I don't go to Mexico and see english signs everywhere and get freebees I mentioned above if I am illegal. I get thrown in a Mexican prison and the key thrown away or deported promptly. You don't go to India, Saudi Arabia, Morroco, Honduras etc and get the freebees either. Only the west is so politically correctly insane. Only the west is expected by the rest of the world to act so insane.

It is about borders, language and culture.

In which case, why should RIM reap profits by holding the patents. Why leave creditors with nothing?

Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s joint chief executive, is expected to be among the witnesses at Friday’s parliamentary hearing on the Nortel sale.