A Delay in the Auction Process?

By Mark Evans | Published: September 11, 2009

For everyone waiting for the winner of the Nortel’s enterprise business to be announced, there may be a chance that you’ll have to wait until next week.

According to documents within Epiq Systems, Verizon Communications will participate in an oral examination on Sept. 14 in New York City at the offices of Nortel’s lawyers Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

In a court filing earlier this week, Verizon said that if Avaya (one of the two bidders) buys Nortel’s enterprise business and Verizon’s existing contracts are not taken up and serviced by Avaya, Verizon plans to oppose the sale.

This could delay the unveiling of the winner until at least Sept. 15.

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  • brett5

    Freakin' BS. Leave it to the Hack to mess up selling his division. What a mess. NO-Tel is cursed.

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  • GoProto

    This must mean Avaya beat SEN bid, or else Verizon wouldn't be objecting still ~ according to all previous news, Verizon objection was only against Avaya. SEN must not have said they wouldn't continue (Vz) service contracts..

  • GoProto

    In the end, it's NT, once again. They agreed to a Stalking Horse bid that allowed the Buyer (Avaya) to pick and choose what contracts they would continue, so relationships with Verizon and others were never protected. You can't blame Avaya for wanting to negotiate their own service contracts, especially as debt to Verizon had alot to do with the BK filing/debt that put NT under.

  • PM_Guy

    I expect that the bidding had not ended by the 3:30PM court hearing time. and the judge delayed it again until Monday. If SEN wins it will be a moot point if Avaya wins then the hear will go as scheduled.

    Stay tune to the Nortel Soap Opera.

    On the bright side there are 860 smiling faces in Ottawa who where given job offers from Ericsson this week.

  • wasthere

    8 years of restructuring where all we were hearing from the numerous management teams was : this decision is delayed, this plan is delayed, this move is delayed etc etc which finally drove the company to bankruptcy. Now their own auction sale is delayed ,,,,,, Ha ! Ha ! Nortel we will miss you !

  • likmyassho

    If Avaya is opposing the sale and they can't look at the documents until Monday; it proves why we're delayed.

  • AnotherSlave

    I don't think anything can be read into this. The outcome could very well be a factor in which bid is accepted. I'm not sure Verizon would know who had the winning bid either so they wouldn't have a reason to drop it. They are looking out for their own interests.

  • GoProto

    “If Avaya is opposing the sale”
    ——————————————

    Don't you mean Verizon? Why would a bidder oppose the sale? Either they win the bid via the dollars, or they don't. And there would be no reason to hear the Verizon objection on Monday if SEN won the bid.

  • GoProto

    Why would a judge even hear the Verizon objection if SEN won the auction? It makes no sense.

  • scalppeeler

    How many unsmiling faces in ottawa who did not receive an offer?

  • eluc

    I start to like Avaya.
    I was disapointed at the beginning because they are not for continuity with Nortel.
    I feel they are like a worker guy. I feel they are not the guy with big relation at White House like Cisco or rich as Verizon who think they can stop anyone in their way or play the cards as they want.

    Good luck Avaya!
    At least, I'd like, to have this satisfaction, to see the Nortel's gravediggers wounded.

  • joremero

    agreed….and from what I heard, Verizon already filed the objection, so no need to stop the auction or not announce the winner…

  • GoProto

    Right. 860 out of how many? Everyone said how great Eric would be because they would keep the jobs, etc.. and all other bidders for this and all other NT businesses are sh*t because they didn't say they would keep anyone, how good is this offer now??

  • GoProto

    No, here it is. The auction was not stopped. Only Avaya said they wouldn't continue contracts that NT had with Verizon.. therefore, that means , SEN would contnue them. Now, if SEN out-bid Avaya today, then there would be no need to hear anything from Verizon next week!??

  • ggordonliddy

    Funny thing is, last year Verizon was so pissed at Nortel they nearly mandated that their sales people lead with Cisco and never Nortel. Funny how AT&T, Bell Canada, Telus, Qwest etc…aren't even concerned about it. The winning bidder will very likely create win-win strategies to incite customers to either stay with their current platform and migrate to another. Even is Siemens gets the business, they are not going to keep every single product offering. I just don't see Verizon's angle. Avaya should sue them for bringing Cisco in to their accounts…but of course that wouldn't go anywhere, just like this little delay. I think there MIGHT be case if this had anything to do with EVDO, but in enterprise, they (Verizon) are dragging Nortel competitors into their own installed base accounts both in order to take advantage of the opportunity to flip the gear and also because the customers are demanding it.

  • ntpurgatory

    PURGATORY. No other stalking horses. No auction winner for Eprise on time. The Nortel name will not cease to exist until 2011 my guess. Last division that can be sold will go sometime Q210. “Nortel Business Solutions” aka the entity that handles obligations that do not go with the division sales will continue through 2010 and 2011 to finish legal obligations to customers / contracts and then it can finally go CH 7 and the way of PanAM, Eastern Airlines, Circuit City, etc etc. What a beating if you are the lucky chap that gets left behind in NBS. Career enhancement at it's finest.

  • brett5

    This plays out nicely….nt execs get to put the blame on the courts. In this case, the courts get to hear VZ's statement and then the court will rule if Avaya or SEN gets the biz. The crooked nt execs can wash their hands of the decision. Oh, all those lost jobs, its out of our control. The gov doesn't think they are at risk….blah, blah, blah. Crooked till the end.

  • PM_Guy

    Correction: there are only 680 smiling faces. I believe wireless had about 800 people in Ottawa so that leave about 120 sad faces next week when they get choped or stay as part of NBS for a little while.

  • freqmgr

    Probably has to do with VzW for years saying they can provide public safety and emergency telecom. And Nortel's developing some neat ways to do it…mostly funded by USG money. While some was wireless based it can be seen as cross networks. Avaya likely is not willing to invest what it takes to support it. Nothing really to do with nation of origin. Nortel for years provided secure solutions to the US DoD….developed outside the US.

  • enterprice

    I'm tired of it all.

    EXECS, please whatever that needs to be done do it FAST each day is a pain for everybody.

    Let's move on, no one is safe.

  • lp101

    As of two hours ago, the auction was still ongoing:

    http://twitter.com/BoGowan/statuses/3927465070

    Sounds promising to have gone that long.

  • aks85

    AKS

  • bankrupt_bob

    “Delay” IS the name of the game!

  • MichelangeloF536

    Bo Gowan's last two Tweets from last night:

    Done for the night. Will pick this up in the AM. about 9 hours ago from Tweetie

    Update: auction ongoing (not delayed to 9/15 as being rumored). Could still announce tonight, but could go into tomorrow #Nortel about 10 hours ago from Tweetie

  • brett5

    Looks like the Nortel nazi pr department has killed the server of this link.

  • vvvv

    > Funny how AT&T, Bell Canada, Telus, Qwest etc…aren't even concerned about it

    … in part because they deduced long ago they could make more money pushing Cisco product than Nortel product.

  • PM_Guy

    I think the delays are caused by Joel Hackney's pay and benefits package. They are still negotiating his job title :-(

  • GoProto

    Nortel on Twitter

  • bankrupt_bob

    “Delay” IS the name of the game!

  • MichelangeloF536

    Bo Gowan's last two Tweets from last night:

    Done for the night. Will pick this up in the AM. about 9 hours ago from Tweetie

    Update: auction ongoing (not delayed to 9/15 as being rumored). Could still announce tonight, but could go into tomorrow #Nortel about 10 hours ago from Tweetie

  • brett5

    Looks like the Nortel nazi pr department has killed the server of this link.

  • vvvv

    > Funny how AT&T, Bell Canada, Telus, Qwest etc…aren't even concerned about it

    … in part because they deduced long ago they could make more money pushing Cisco product than Nortel product.

  • PM_Guy

    I think the delays are caused by Joel Hackney's pay and benefits package. They are still negotiating his job title :-(

  • GoProto

    Nortel on Twitter

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