Comments on: Behind the Scenes of Nortel’s Bankruptcy Decision

By: linho

linho — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:01:05 +0000

MZ “cry me a river!”

By: freqmgr

freqmgr — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:34:29 +0000

How about Band 9/JCI 6 folks who held roles in businesses (e.g. wireless) that they simply did not understand nor cared to learn about? Trying to run them as they had the legacy business 20+ years earlier. No willingness to learn or to step aside.

By: scalppeeler

scalppeeler — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:17:58 +0000

The rag citizen rarely gets things right and this is no exception.
Who killed Nortel.
Here is who killed Nortel.
Whoever elected the Board of Directors.
Because the Board of Directors hired all the useless executives
who in turned breeded and allowed useless management to flourish.
Bad executives made bad decisions and management was just a consequence.
It all starts at the top. The Board hired the executives.
Whomever hired the board is to blame period.
You can blame, roth, dunn, Z, poor management, bad decisions like
outsourcing, brutal inability to stay ahead of the curve regarding technological
trends, too many hands in one pie, the brutal and pathetic actions of polticians at the federal, provincial and municipal level, mcguintys stabbing of his own people in ontario regarding pensioners etc etc..
The fact remains the Board was all wrong and they created the firestorm.
I am sure you have all heard of the domino effect.
No different for Nortel.

By: linho

linho — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:01:05 +0000

MZ “cry me a river!”

By: freqmgr

freqmgr — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:34:29 +0000

By: scalppeeler

scalppeeler — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:17:58 +0000

By: Casual_Observer

Casual_Observer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:49:52 +0000

$1B in cash is worth a lot more than $20B in paper stock printing which is what Nortel did to buy up those companies.

Anyhoo we are on the backside of two orchestrated bubbles by the powers that be. They are still trying to squeeze the last bit of juice from the turnip but there's really nothing left.

Expect a rush to cash when the game is up.

By: Casual_Observer

Casual_Observer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:45:06 +0000

Even less than 1B would have been enough for Nortel to survive the credit markets implosion, a fall in revenue and multiple interest payments. Granted some jobs would have still had to go but Nortel would have emerged as a smaller more nimble competitor similar to Juniper. That's not to say Nortel wouldn't have spent another decade or so in decline. After all we know the management tactics and strategies were simply not correct for a technology company. Zafirovski neglects to mention that he left Motorola in worse shape than when he started – as it was new management that had to come up with a strategy for the Motorola phone business to survive. He was simply not up to the monumental task of remaking Nortel.

By: less

less — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:55:46 +0000

Rumor has it ever-frugal Mike inadvertently turned the crapper lights off on one of them sitting tight as he exited the lavatory.. after washing his hands with 30% diluted water...

(As for "David Drinkwater" - no puns, please!)

Terry Savage of Lazard Frères advised Nortel to file while it still had cash and flexibility. "We’ve never seen a company as well prepared for Chapter 11," he said.

"well-prepared" - now thats plain hysterical. Almost as funny as Zs whore-in-church quip during his Commons summit: "It is pretty warm here, heh."

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/nortel/Video+...

Mr. Zafirovski’s disappointment was profound. "I never left anything in worse shape than I found it," he’d declared three years earlier.

If you're gonna do that, do it on a grand scale, at the perfect time.

By: nomorent

nomorent — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:41:35 +0000

Zafirovski.
This is when they told him that he won't be able to fly his jet.