Ottawa Won’t Block CDMA Sale

IMHO, Ottawa should put a condition on the sale.
#1. Job levels: the President of Ericsson Canada stated (at the Fed session) that the job levels in Ottawa (and other sites) would be maintained and even grow (no consolidation planned). This should be in the deal. (obviously there must a link to overall business conditions).
#2 Nortel pensions in Canada: Ericsson has said they will not take-on any liabilities wrt pensions. The Feds, with Ontario agreement, should stipulate that Ericsson Canada, as the largest acquirer, keep the Canadian fixed benefit pension fund solvent, even if they don't contribute to it. Right now the fund would be converted to an annuity- a disaster for pensioners.

Not much to demand of Ericsson!

Major news! Verizon Wireless Completes Successful LTE 4G Data Calls In Boston And Seattle:

http://news.vzw.com/news/2009/08/pr2009-08-14f.html

LTE IS GOING TO BE HUGE, MARK MY WORDS!
* THIS IS REAL
* THIS IS NOW
* THIS IS OPPORTUNITY
* THIS IS REAL MOBILITY (WIMAX IS NOT A TRUE MOBILE STANDARD, BUT LTE IS)
* THIS IS INNOVATIVE AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY … WORKING!
* THIS WILL BE WORLD-WIDE
* THIS IS A WATERSHED EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS
* NEVER BEFORE HAS THE MAJORITY OF WIRELESS OPERATORS ACROSS THE GLOBE CONVERGED ON ONE STANDARD FOR THE NEXT GENERATION STANDARD
* APPLICATIONS BEYOND OUR CURRENT IMAGINATIONS WILL EMERGE TO EXPLOIT THIS TECHNOLOGY
* THE NT LTE TEAM HAVE PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF LTE AND WILL CONTINUE TO HELP ERICSSON DRIVE THIS EXCITING NEW TECHNOLOGY TO COMMERCIALIZATION

Outsource, OUTSOURCE TO THE CHEAPEST NORTEL CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE ABROAD.

RIM have done a great job for Canada. They are handset manufacturers, and would be no better at getting CDMA network business than Nortel was. No way they'd get into Vz. The Nortel CDMA and LTE business has a much stronger future with Ericsson.
If the govt block the sale to Ericsson they will regret it. Those employees will be out of a job much sooner.
Canada seems a bit upset that a European company is the buyer. There ain't no-one else. North America has basically given up on the wireless networking business. They are far to parcochial and are not good at addressing world markets. This is why the Europeans are winning in this business. North America would have been far better jumping on the GSM bandwagon years ago instead of persisting in its own standards. Then North American companies would have been better placed to address the rest of the world and would be much stronger today.

Uh, if NA were a leader in GSM, the global village would be moaning about the "technology stolen from and a profit-driven monopoly forced upon us by global (=US) corporations".
Subsequently, whatever direction NA took GSM in would be so ovbiously, oft exasperatingly inferior - only a gringo couldn't see it. With Nortel CDMA E/// bought a whole bunch of excuses as to why this or that won't work: Whacha expect, Yanks dunnit.

a large majority of the polticians are in bed with the corporate board. They are all in for one reason, which is to make money.

Everything is a show to get votes. They blew some steam and put up a show for the masses by calling in the Z man for hearing. What came out of it? Nothing?

So seriously - there is NO chance that the review of the sale to E/// is derailed in the Investment Canada Act review? Anyone care to weigh in?

Supposed it gets blocked; then what? Capisce? No formal bid. No attendance at the court hearing. No previous experience in wireless infrastructure and LTE. Preference of VzW for NSN or E//. Capisce?

Best outcome for Canada and Canadian employees at this point is that Canadian government supports E// purchase and gives them a nudge and financial incentive (EDC loans & R&D Tax credits) to maintain/grow strong R&D presence in Ottawa and supports RIM acquisition of NT LTE IPR.

No chance in hell this will get blocked.
It was as was suggested all along, cheap posturing by politicians.
And a feeble attempt it was.
Eric Will own Nortel wireless a few short days from now.
You heard harpo.
There are only two items that are in the pockets and on the hearts and minds of polticians such as harper, mcguinty and sir bob rae. That's right, that lady in kenya and omar khadr. As Bob Rae says we must "bring them both home".
These are the hot topics that Canadian politicians dwell on and devote time, money and resources. These are the headline grabbers and news articles that garner attention and consideration. After all when you consider the sheer number of votes riding on this from the massive amount of people cut from the same ilk who they've imported year after year you begin to see what really matters to the politico tweeties.
Nortel and the Gov't should not be mentinoed in the smae sentence.
Its blasphemy
As Borat would say. What?
Now Car Assembler and Gov't. That's acceptable and okay.

If it get's blocked the value goes down dramatically as the only credible buyer would be RIM. So Rim may just be looking for a bargin here as opposed to anything else. The politicians would be crazy to block it (and they don't really have grounds).

The assets are better off with Erricsson as they are in those businesses as opposed to RIM who is not an infrastructure player.

I would note for the conspiracy theorists that Jim Bastille funded a political think tank in Waterloo that has several leading members who have previously been Liberal MP's or Deputy Ministers. So you have to ask how serious was this given that they did not comply with the bidding requirements and did not submit requests to change to terms of the auction when they had the chance, announced their 'bid' publicly prior to the auction and then made more PR though a hearing in front of the Parlimentary Comittee saying it was in the National interest for these assests to stay canadian which would disqualify all other potential buyers apart from RIM......

RIM bid on the assets prior to insolvency, protested being blocked at every turn, and were present at a government review advocating LTE's worth. One government member, Mr. Chan. even degradingly questioned their aggressive protest comparing it to one of RIMs head's personal hockey battles, as Eric also seeks EDC welfare in buying almost all of Nortel's profits, in a similar loan that was extended to NSN.

Mike Z. said he liked they guys at RIM, even though Macedonians and Greeks historically clash. Yet, Mike Z. also said he was "surprised" at their comments.
The courts and Nortel implemented terms of sale that were materially different to RIM's pre-insolvency negotiations. So why surprised? Were arrangements discussed and NDAs RIM signed on several occasions different before folding different or not. Perhaps Mike is confused by contracts signed on several written occasions with his past employer.

This bidding process Nortel called "fair" ( like they called the fraud settlement called "fair" that tanked to half if they sold shares immediately at near $9 by the time the defrauded got them) by the same courts that approved bonuses and cutting severances. As this court was relieved (Judge Gross was "gleeful") to see something sold.

How can anyone trust anything Nortel says and said in light of this and so much more.

The part of the government intervention that might prove having some teeth here is examining what is in the best interests of Canada.

RIM opted out so as not to cripple being unable to bid on further assets and it was the patents they wanted. This proved to be a smart move too.

Perhaps since Nortel licensed out the patents, if RIM buys them, does this mean they will transfer out Eric's licensing fees to RIM, and RIM gets what it wants?

RIM's founders are smart and civil but also aggressive in this North American business climate of the Gekos and Madoffs, where they won't be taken for anyone's fool.

I can't see them not getting the patents in a truly fair bid, no longer restricted by solvency changes, or being double crossed by Nortel when they will probably also provide the highest dollar for it... as they did when NSN offered 650M and they were willing to pay 1B

In light of them being fined a record level 75M for options backdating and Nortel absolutely nothing for Canada's largest fraud by the OSC, they can't keep being unfavored or suppressed by the shark Gekos and their pals advocating fair bidding, as Nortel has lost many friends,in high places with board members and CEO abruptly bouncing.

At least something Nortel has done will stay in Canada to benefit Canadians, for all the vested energies over the years. The intent of so much blood sweat and tears that went into this American run to the ground past titan to broke bonus happy money burning fraud whipping boy jester may yet be recovered into something exponentially more honorable, something our good scientists worked hard to create, than have unethical sharks devour or burn it into the wind doing with callous disregard to do so.

Perhaps removing the evil money and incentive that draws the flies was the best thing that could have happened, short of losing other assets to foreign firms. At least Avaya is part of North America, as companies cut employees outside their backyard's first.

Would be nice to see RIM get it and North American employees not be as disrupted to grow with a successful Canadian firm run by philanthropic and exponentially more ethical / moral people who believe and adhere to what they sign or say.

OK, so this company is being off to... Zero ;>)

But there is some bozo (analyst)out there who still gives NRTLQ.PK a one-year price target of $1.20 [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ao?s=NRTLQ.PK]... Comments? Any ideas about when the "stock" will be officially "worthless" for tax purposes?

how can you possibly POSSIBLY think that the current owners of Nortel - the creditors who want CASH from it - would decide to sell the parts off for anything less than the maximum they could get for it?

Do you really think Nortel are in control here? They are not! The creditors are running the show now, via E&Y whos job it is to get as much for them as possible!

What could the creditors possibly gain from taking a bidder out of the process unfairly? It's not like they could get MORE cash by doing that!!