Where Are the Enterprise Bids?

By Mark Evans | Published: September 1, 2009

For anyone still interested in the Nortel Garage Sale, the deadline to submit a bid for Nortel’s enterprise business is Friday (Sept. 4), conviently before the Labor Day weekend.

Aside from Avaya’s $475-million “stalking horse” bid, there’s nothing else of the table, although there have been rumors that Siemens Enterprise Communications and Matlin Patterson could be interested.

The auction for the enterprise business happens on Sept. 11.

For more thoughts, check out LightReading.

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  • AnotherSlave

    I would think they're waiting for the last minute.

  • S_O_S_This_is_HMS_Nortel

    Whoever ends up with the piece, as long as Hack and the Global Operations wienies don't come with it, it could be a valuable asset.

    What about either Cisco or Juniper or ALU to bid and kill off a competitor ?

  • less

    Don't wait too long, them fluorescent office bulbs are going fast

  • RedFlag

    Government now wants money from the sale of NT assets. IRS wants money from back taxes! Why would nortel want to maximze asset sales revenue?? So they can pay the government?

    Another farce and so sad. Government was part of the problem though. Where was the government when shareholders were getting fleeced from corrupt Nortel management?

    Government does not deserve a dime from NT’s asset sales!!! Next to the BOD and former NT CEO’s, the government gets a lot of blame. The government is pathetic. Hope the courts render true justice in the end.

    Most of the money should go to bondholders and preferred shareholders and pension liabs. Even common shareholders deserve something, even if it is a penny a share. Government should get ZILCH!!

    Am hoping the courts derive a fair fomrula to divie the money.

  • NortelTragedy

    Not to worry, the Carolina Choker (a.k.a. Jesse Joel Hackney) has it well under control. Heck, he knows about UC, can rattle off a few buzzwords, knows some senior execs at, well, GE. Very few customers know or respect him. But he is well received at speaking engagements, especially where Six Sigma is embraced. And, look at that smile, one can't help but trust a person with a smile like Jesse Joel.

  • gone2moro

    Funny thing about bankruptcy and taxes. In the US bankruptcy will forgive all of your debts EXCEPT to the US Federal Gov. If NT screwed up the books AGAIN and those whacky Canadian bookeepers forgot the little detail about the US IRS…. I suspect a very large share of the sale proceedings will indeed go to the US Gov.

    Mikey Z better hope that hole in the wall, Macedonia, doesn't have an extradition agreement with the US.

  • ipphone

    |-o

  • Viva_La_French_Toast

    Don't count on it.

    Somebody had to fund that Cash for Clunkers program,….looks like NT is the right company to fleece,..er,..pay.

  • 9yearsofthisnortel

    Well the bloodletting has started today. Lots of people being let go of in Enterprise. We have lost 9 already and it is early…

  • brett5

    What group are you in?

  • GoProto

    No other bidder is going to show their hand ahead of time.. why would it be to their advantage??

  • brett5

    I agree. If not for the sake of buying the unit, just bid it up so that who ever takes it is financial crippled even faster. Look what happen when NT bid up the Silver Lake investment for Avaya.

  • GoProto

    Someone claimed that he was diligently working on lining up a job with Siemens Enterprise, alluding to a deal in favor of them over the Stalking Horse and other possible bidders.. Can anyone corroborate this, or was it mere conjecture or irony?

  • MichelangeloF536

    Indeed–the stalking horse already enjoys advantages. Why give them more?

    We could end up with a big surprise like the Wireless auction. Ericsson came out of nowhere and the stalking horse rode off into the sunset with nothing.

  • zeroman

    Its like eBay. Hey they could have just gone there and saved all this cash handed out to bankers, lawyers etc.

  • zeroman

    valuable asset with less than 10% market share. how?

    do you know what 500 million can do at Cisco, Alcatel and Juniper. They can develop entire product lines with that money or buy better companies.

  • zeroman

    or for the public healthcare program

    or for the national debt

    or for the national deficit

    or for US social security

    or for the mortgage bailout

    The US is broke.

  • zeroman

    and the US courts are appointed by who ??

  • zeroman

    maybe Avaya is hoping and praying now that somebody does.

  • GoProto

    I would not be surprised by that , at all. What looked like a trophy before may very well appear as a tarnished replica of what was now..

  • GoProto

    Yup, Ericsson came out of the (Nortel) blue, didn't they? i hope it's interesting, just to avoid the doldrums of what it is today. Then, we can look forward to the civil suits and then the SEC/DOJ diligent and dogged pursuit of the frauders.. they will not let go of this, believe me..

  • random123

    RedFlag wrote “Why would nortel want to maximze asset sales revenue?? “

    You seem to think Nortel is selling Nortel. This is wrong. Nortel is being sold by the creditors, via their employees E&Y. E&Y pull all the strings now and get as much out of NOrtel as they can for their customers, those creditors. They are obliged to do this by law. And for their own reputation, the better job they do the more business they'll get doing it in future.

    Nortel handed the reigns of control over to E&Y in February. Nortel gave control of their destiny away on that day.

  • Golfball

    Actually, all governmental debts (or government-imposed debts), regardless of the level of government, cannot be discharged in (US) bankruptcy. (The latter includes spousal and child support, which are imposed by the state judiciary.)

  • freqmgr

    I've asked before….why would the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia allow Z back in? To teach an MBA course?

  • gone2moro

    I believe Mikey Z owes me child support… owes all of us… he treated us like children for years. ha ha… pay up sucka…

  • eluc

    I almost see the second big sale of Nortel but I am still not enlightened about the dead line of blocked sale of the first big sale by governement. Is it that still possible? I didn't heard about them final and official position?
    thank you

  • protosphere

    Do I hear 485… 485? Do I hear 480… 480?
    Sold to the man with a thin wallet for 475 and a 100M guarantee… (applause by the courts and a bow from the man on the tail end of the stalking horse with his head up its assets, and we don't mean baby donkeys)

    Next liability on the auctions block, step right up and don't be shy, better sold than gone to zero as the rewarded board and monitor dole out the cash to do so…

    argh… may I suggest a vodka and soda with a twist of lime for any management member with Nortel on their accreditation, as no one will swallow the accomplishments section …OLG's CEO does them no favors either .. also fired “for cause” like where did they get that same old term from as they seek to improve things yet again…as a past government chief attorney gets nailed for a hit and run fatality yesterday…

  • zeroman

    anybody hear about the E/// bid. No news from the review is probably good news.

    RIM's making a dunce out of themselves just crying foul – sour grapes nothing else.

  • zeroman

    rumours of major layoffs but apparently hush hush. true or just grapevine, any comment?

  • zeroman

    yeah and its going to further rust until it gets integrated after 2, 3 or 6 months.

  • scalppeeler

    What is your definition of a major layoff.
    Businesses are being sold.
    You'll either have a job with the new company or you won't.
    For how long and what the particulars are, who knows.
    If you are in a business that does not get sold you will die a slow death in what may be left of Nortel at the end of the day, or they could turf you at a moments notice, with the exception of managers protecting themselves.
    If you are not given an offering letter from the new company you are laid off with no severance and you join the long list of creditors.
    How good individual claims are at that point will determine what one may get back but no matter what don't expect to see anything until 2012 the way things are transpiring.
    Hah 2012.
    Movie coming out.

  • Another_Nortel_Watcher

    Who cares about any of this stuff anymore? Nortel is dead. Zafirovsky's ego killed it.

    The loser and his cadre of sycophants couldn't run the company and obviously had no clue how to get it out of ch11. The government will take your kids away if you are an obviously incompetent parent. The government needs some mechanism to trigger the replacement of obviously incompetent boards. Hundreds of thousands (at least) of employees, shareholders, and creditors have been hurt by this massive fail.

  • scalppeeler

    Far as who cares.
    There are basically three groups who care.
    Current Employees. Ex employees and most of all Current pensioners.
    Other than them only lawyers and judges care only for reasons relative to personal financial
    gain. The canadian government at the federal, provincial and municipal level for sure do not care. The BOD killed Nortel. Roth, Dunn, Owens and Z merely made sure it happened fast with basically no direction. And of the course they were all hired by the board of no direction. That's where the problem started.
    Just like a house. If you have a bad foundation the rest of the house suffers.

  • eluc

    Somebody know?

    A lot of people talk about Nortel (CDMA/LTE) was saled but I didn't saw-heard an official declaration from governmet if they'll block or not the sale. I know it had 21 days as term but nothing official.

    Somebody know?

  • PM_Guy

    The winner will be the company that offers Joel Hackney the best title and highest pay and bonuses of course.

    Nothing else will matter.

  • vvvv

    Substantial layoffs in Enterprise. No surprise, given that Enterprise lost significant money in Q2 compared to the other businesses. Hackney says he intends to breakeven in Q4, but I don't believe he has a chance. Revenue is deteriorating too fast. Announcing Avaya as the stalking horse was very bad for sales. Customers are smart enough to know that Avaya just wants an inside track to rip and replace the installed Nortel base.

  • zeroman

    Hackney for COO. go Joel go.

  • zeroman

    5%, 10%?

  • NortelTragedy

    Hackney's break-even calculation: $0 Revenue = $0 Cost

    He is a GEnius remember.

  • vvvv

    My guess is more like 20%. The 10-Q said he had an $80 million operating loss in Q2. Normally one would expect Q4 to have higher revenue than Q2; this is Nortel's seasonality as seen in annual reports for many years. Assume Hackney must cut $50 million in Q4 expenses to break even. I suspect that equates to at least 1,000 positions, possibly more depending on where they are and what JCI's will be targeted.

  • TongueInCheek

    To expect bids on Nortel Enterprise days in advance of the deadline is silly. This step in the process is to simply get a seat at the auction table on Sept. 11th.

    Also, it was announced earlier today that The Gores Group/Siemens Enterprise has a new agreement in place with Netlink to acquire Siemens Enterprise product portfolio in 27 countries, including Canada but not including the United States. This certainly puts an interesting twist on things.

  • GoProto

    We shoulda garnished his wages, er, I mean bonuses.

  • 27539

    What drove the recent NRTLQ.PK stock jump?

  • normanZ

    the 1,000 number is what Hackney quoted on his information session a few weeks back…Those positions announcements happened yesterday and today with the day folks get walked at the door of Sept. 15th. Hey, at least they are telling people two weeks in advance so they can all steal everything they can…I am sure lots of people would love a nice Herman Miller chair to bring home as severance pay.

  • The_Closinator

    I can hardly wait to see who wants to purchase a company with a $3BB tax bill waiting for them as a liability.

  • The_Closinator

    Sad to tell you, but they began cutting the 1,000 a few weeks back. My team was decimated on Aug 21. I had an official 90 minute notice via email.

  • scalppeeler

    The 3 Billion dollar “claim” made by the IRS is just that.
    Another claim made by a creditor although in this case you could argue the IRS
    is more than a creditor.
    This issue however has absolutely nothing to do with the sales of any businesses and has zero impact on anything relevant.
    Remember that the buyer is not purchasing a debt or tax bill or anything else like that.
    The buyer [[whomever that might be]] and their lawywers will be sure there is zero baggage and no skeletons in the closet when they purchase a particular business so I don't really know what you are inferring with that comment.
    If no buyer comes along that particular business dies a slow death, but this is unlikely to happen because that would be very bad for the creditors.
    Maybe you are inferring people are shying away right now and that is a fair point.
    If they are shying away it has nothing to do with the IRS claim or any other claims made by creditors. It's all about the Right price at the Right time.
    It's all about cash, future prospects and best bang for the buck.
    If the IRS claim is legit, they can wait and get their share of the sale proceeds just like everyone else.

  • normanZ

    Not surprised…I guess it just was more noticable to me this week then before. Either way, 1000 are gonna be gone and lots more to come (regardless of buyer and yes, my bets are on Avaya “winning”).

  • drgordonfreeman

    Agree … 1000 is just the beginning. There will likely be another round in early October, of equal or greater number, depending on the requirements of the buyer, and another in November, to cull the chosen from the unwanted (you either receive an offer, or you are cut from the team, it's supposed to be pretty black-and-white by then).

  • drgordonfreeman

    Agree … 1000 is just the beginning. There will likely be another round in early October, of equal or greater number, depending on the requirements of the buyer, and another in November, to cull the chosen from the unwanted (you either receive an offer, or you are cut from the team, it's supposed to be pretty black-and-white by then).

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