Comments on: Ottawa Won’t Block CDMA Sale

By: Ottawa Gives A-O-K to Ericsson Deal

Ottawa Gives A-O-K to Ericsson Deal — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:30:18 +0000

[...] AAN has been saying all along, the Canadian government has given its approval to Ericsson’s $1.3 billion purchase of [...]

By: tonyryb

tonyryb — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:30:49 +0000

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!

By: tonyryb

tonyryb — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:30:49 +0000

By: less

less — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:27:01 +0000

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

By: scalppeeler

scalppeeler — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:04:21 +0000

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.

By: whatnext4nt

whatnext4nt — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:59:48 +0000

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.

By: whatnext4nt

whatnext4nt — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:41:33 +0000

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

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

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

By: OttawaGuy

OttawaGuy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:13:12 +0000

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......

By: less

less — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:05:11 +0000

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.

By: How_long

How_long — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:28:42 +0000

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.