Comments on: More Time on the Block for MEN

By: Teleguy

Teleguy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:57:00 +0000

Nortel bid date for MEN pushed to Nov. 17. http://bit.ly/2Ne3L3

By: wasthere

wasthere — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:29:14 +0000

Nortel can't even proceed on Chapter 11 in a orderly manner. The 2 auctions are postponed again. Bravo Nortel, another one for the books, I guess.
Nortel : a tragical-comedy that never ends !

By: Teleguy

Teleguy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Nortel bid date for MEN pushed to Nov. 17. http://bit.ly/2Ne3L3

By: wasthere

wasthere — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:29:14 +0000

Nortel can't even proceed on Chapter 11 in a orderly manner. The 2 auctions are postponed again. Bravo Nortel, another one for the books, I guess.
Nortel : a tragical-comedy that never ends !

By: wasthere

wasthere — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:05:53 +0000

Nortel says the auction is still set for Friday, though admits that situation could change before the end of today. Ciena spokesfolk couldn't immediately be reached for comment. We're guessing they were all in a meeting poring over the auction fine print...

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading, nov 12

Yep, 'Business made complicated' till the end !

By: happy2b

happy2b — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:58:59 +0000

This is the problem with Nortel, their thinking is/was spectacular revenues are fantastic, revenues doesn't mean anything unless you're making profits from your revenues, this was their problem, slim margins on products/services, 10-15% margin typically means a break even point, products margins have to be 50% or better to be profitable.

The two Garys were tasked with analyzing the corporation and the future market, and leading it into the future market, not analyze what the corporation was doing now or in the past. Conclusion the corporation need to be focused on one or two markets, not trying to do everything
and being the best at it (look at what the car companies did, dropped divisions down to a few).

They wanted to keep Carrier and Enterprise, so they understood their leadership and SW features generate high profit margins.
They viewed optical and wireless as the market was changing - increasing competition, market share was falling, cheaper competitors out there, smaller opportunity for SW features.

We'll never know if their plan would have been successful, when Mike Z showed up he rejected their plan, he was never going to accept a plan to save the company that was develop before his time or without his input, after he was brought in to save the day and he was going do it his way, the Six Sigma way.

By: happy2b

happy2b — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:21:16 +0000

The problem with bringing 100% of employee base and their years of service over to a new company, and trimming later is you have to pay severence with the carry over years of service at the other company, huge payouts and burden for new owner. I would think a smart buyer would want to buy the division, during the transition period, analysis the merger, develop a plan, decide how goes and who stays, bring over who you believe you need, and if they decide to trim later smaller burden.

By: zeroman

zeroman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:03:28 +0000

telecom will heat up with more competition. HP just acquired 3Com for 2.7B. wonder why they did not go for Nortel enterprise.

By: nomorent

nomorent — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:59:39 +0000

You are such a moron. What “spectacular revenues”? You have no clue how much money Nortel lost in that black hole called MEN.
As far as the two Gary's are concerned – at that time they were the only hope for Nortel's salvation. It sounds like you would have been the first to go if they stayed on.

By: nomorent

nomorent — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:50:08 +0000

Who with sound mind would want that piece of sh@#t? From all Nortel's LOBs only UMTS had worse performance, and accumulated more losses. If it wasn’t for UMTS and MEN losses Nortel would have probably survived. Ciena will go fast down the toilet after the assimilation is completed.