http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082…

Note that government pays in the 60K range but private sector pays significantly more and this is in a city with a lower cost of living than Toronto. I think part of the musing is what happens to Canadian tech leadership when thousands of people who are currently 'innovating' move to safer government jobs like many have chosen to do. Perhaps others step up and perhaps they don't.

1. would any company pour resources here or into their other HQs globally – NO
2. would customers visit due to Nortel and also visit other small companies – NO
3. would local talent have a future long-term – NO
4. would engineering school graduates have future opportunities lined up – NO
5. would corporate citizenship from foreign companies invest in community – NO
6. would small companies supporting Nortel stay in business – NO
7. would suppliers to Nortel continue large operations – NO
8. would channels mostly supporting Nortel be competitive – NO
9. would high salaried execs and people stay for lower salary jobs – NO
10. would investors put in money here preferring it over other locations – NO

the economics may not be as devastating as a GM but it is going to have an impact. it will be tough to deal with the vaccum. people will step up but in today's environment this will be long term depending upon the next best thing coming out of here.

almost all companies locally can trace their roots to Nortel as it fostered innovation. talking about Nortel the entity here not the management. people point to RIM but don't think mobile widgets will do it nor are they as diverse as a Nortel with a single product line that is already under threat from Apple, Samsung, Palm, Motorola, Nokia and Google.

Nortel's gap will be replaced over time with E///, NSN, Avaya, and the Chinese, to the extent governments allow it. The larger impact will be the micro-economies created and sustained by local wage earners, pensioners and suppliers. Look, for example, at any Midwest US town or region once inhabited by General Motors. Many are now ghost towns; retailers that once flourished from GM paychecks left town long ago. One could argue unionization, but the point is the micro-economies were devastated. Look around today, business after business, small and large, are going out of business because the high-paying jobs are leaving. Nortel's demise is, however, it's own – greed, mismanagement, lies, deceit, deception, ineptness, incompetence. It's unfortunate that what once was a positive contributor to people, families, communities and regions is now gone. One can only hope that the talent and contribution will continue on through entrepreneurs and innovation and that governments will support (and defend) those pensioners impacted.

Many employees in Canada will end up with the acquirier. The majority of damage done to the Canadian economy was in the last 9 years before the break-up. So, the impact now is actually fairly low compared to the damage, destruction caused from the 2001-2002 downturn. In Ottawa, Nortel alone lost more than 25000 jobs over 9 years. The remaining 1000 or so who do not make it to an acquirer are peanuts at this point. Nortle only has less than 4000 employees in Ottawa (I think it's down around 3500 or something now … )

Now, the question to ask is, what did those 25000 do? Many of them actually went on to start ups, or other technology companies. Ottawa's unemployeement rate never lept in heaps and bounds due to Nortel's demise. Quite the opposite, many Nortel staff found jobs in high-tech. Whether they stayed in Ottawa is a different story.

Ottawa is really no longer Silicon Valley North. That demise happened during 2001-2004 really. Most of the high-paying jobs in high-tech in Canada migrated to Toronto and the GTA. Ottawa is still mostly software development jobs, that are not “high-paying”. If you mean 60k a year, then sure. But other comparable service sectors offer that with a few years of experience. In Nortel, the real money was in R&D JCI 3 or 4. That's when you went form 60k a year to a “high-paying” job.

I'd argue RIM has been filling Canada's high-tech top spot for a while now. You can argue CGI is doing that as well. CGI is a larger employer than Microsoft, Ericsson or Nokia in Canada.

So, while we poo poo Nortel, we must remember that she WAS great. She is no longer relevant, as most of the world moved on 5 years ago. This is the problem with the company. Looking to past greatness instead of getting on with things and reinventing herself.