Nortel Goes Down, Bonuses Go Up

Do you think the crew upon the Titantic would have received big bonuses if any of them had survived? After all, they did prove that it was possible to sink the unsinkable, and some people did manage to live.

Well, Nortel seems to be intent on rewarding its senior executives for taking the S.S. Nortel down to the bottom of the bankruptcy ocean. According to an SEC filing, Nortel CFO John Doolittle is eligible for bonus of 100% of his base salary. Now, that’s great work if you can find it.
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In an April 20 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, bankrupt Nortel, which has sloughed off its most valuable units at various auctions, said new CFO John Doolittle is eligible for an annual bonus of 100 percent his base salary.

According to Phone+, Doolittle made $1.68-million in 2009 so…well, you can figure out the math.

Of course, this isn’t any consolation for the ex-employees who were chopped without severance or pensioners who are seen their benefits disappear but life isn’t fair sometimes….except if you’re a senior Nortel executive.

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  • 4merEmployee22
    Ever wonder what the CCAA - Companies Creditors Arrangement Act is all about???

    Only Lawyers had the knowledge of all the loop holes how this is applied tied
    with any bankruptcy!!!! You see my friends they've studied these loopholes!
    They could extend this bankruptcy proceedings to their likings as long as they like
    it with the approval of the Judges! The Judges had made up their decisions!
    They don't care! Why should they care! They can sleep well at their fancy houses!

    Former employees are no lawyers!!! We will never win!!

    Who else will be the winners of these fiasco???

    These is all about for the LOVE OF MONEY!!!
  • happy2b
    Another fiscal quarter, another round of bonus for all my executive friends!
    This party is great Dolittle, lets keep it going as long as possibly!
    I highly agree with my executive friends, party on!
  • exnt2
    Bonus inversely proportional to how much you do. how about two times or three times.

    Ironically they must be playing a new version of Doom, having fun at it.

    There is no comparison with the Captain of the Titanic. He went down with the ship. The crew gave up their lives saving the others. So it is an insult to compare the two because you are bringing Titanic down to this level of garbage.
  • 4merEmployee22
    NORTEL Executhieves!
    The new meaning of CEO - Cheif Executhieve Officer.
  • closeshave
    To think a one-time $100 charitable donation from each of these exec would allow me start, say, a landscaping business, which would enable me to offer them services tending to their manicured properties costing several $1000/month.


  • freqmgr
    But they would want a tax deduction which means you have to form an actual charity....do not expect any of those folks to just "give" even $100 away. They "need" that money......
  • protosphere
    Isn't it the roth envy bonuses that got them into this mess to begin with? The false profits for bonuses that resulted in the largest fraud settlement in Canada.

    Did they not vote to keep these ill got bonuses at a kangaroo AGM. Didn't they dilute hundreds of millions of shares when trading much higher under their reason and oxymoron, "to keep good people"

    They rewarded financial innovation, rewarded themselves at every turn, and ex-VP stated it transformed from a culture of innoation to one of bonuses, is it any wonder they folded with god knows what we do not know.

    Their actions were endless, to be seen, and I questioned so many times, is anyone watching this? These ultimatum artists even liquidated the day following government inquisition when Z-man wore Mulrooney's template in that he didn't know mentioning his kids education, with bells on he didn't know they would fold as Binning was hired after so many insider only CFOs... argh... it is endless... and to be seen.

    When will the fraud trials start in the U.S. because Canada has a gag order on them as Manley's law firm defends Dunn!

    ...to be seen!
  • exnt2
    stop dreaming. if you think white collar crime is punishable you live in a different world. move on because nothing will ever happen.
  • protosphere
    I fear you are absolutely correct in this fraud haven Canada.

    Ebbers and Skilling got a quarter of a century sentences in the US but here an ex finance minister defends Dunn.
  • protosphere
    http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/03/20/nortel-retention-bonus.html

    Last Updated: Friday, March 20, 2009

    Courts in Ontario and Delaware gave Nortel Networks permission on Friday to pay retention bonus money to eight senior executives while the company restructures under creditor protection.

    Reports indicated the eight executives could receive up to $7.3 million US in bonus money.

    The payments are part of a bigger $23-million US incentive program covering 92 staff at the telecommunications company.

    Lawyers representing some of the 1,000 workers who were denied severance pay after the company went into creditor protection in January objected Friday to payment of the bonuses to the eight.




    http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/cdn/2009/11/27/nortel-bonuses-is-nothing-short-of-shameful/52550/

    Nortel bonuses are nothing short of shameful
    Posted Nov 27 2009, 12:28 AM

    Usually when an executive gets a bonus it's for a job well done.
    Not in the case of Nortel executives. In their case, they get a big fat bonus for a job done poorly. These bonuses are at the expense of Nortel pensioners. Do you think that's fair? Of course it isn't, but life isn't fair.
    The thing that gets me is Mike Zafirovski, the former CEO of Nortel, actions.Supposedly the word on the street is that he agonized over awarding these bonuses, while cutting pension funds and severance payments to laid off employees


    http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2198650

    Theremay be good reasons why Nortel Networks Corp. is handing out salary hikes and bonuses (yet again) this year, but it will be hard pressed to justify it to former employees fighting for severance packages or pensions.

    This is, after all, a once-great company now in bankruptcy protection with a multi-billion-dollar pension deficit that proposes to leave thousands of workers high and dry.

    These folks quite rightly want to know why executives get extra when they can't even get the money they are owed.



    http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Nortel+execs+over+million+bonuses/2695542/story.html

    They were paid while thousands of former employees lost jobs without severance and hundreds lost parts of pensions payments.

    In total, the top seven executives got $14.2 million in cash compensation including salary, bonuses and other compensation last year.

    Nortel also disclosed in an annual report that it paid $140 million last year in professional fees to lawyers, financial, pension and human resource experts helping manage the bankruptcy proceedings that started in January 2007.

    Most Nortel directors previous took their compensation in stock, which ultimately lost all value, but changed to cash when Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection.

    The biggest annual incentive payment went to top enterprise executive Joel Hackney, who got $1.67 million, and wireless chief Richard Lowe who got $1.57 million in bonuses. They are now working respectively for Avaya and Ericsson which bought their operations.

    Hackney got total compensation in 2009 of $2.19 million and Lowe got $2.41 million.

    Nortel said that former chief executive Mike Zafirovski, who resigned in August, got a $1.19-million incentive payment but no severance when he left. The money was paid from a separate incentive plan tied to company performance in the June-ending quarter. He received a total of $2.3 million in pay, incentives and other payments from Nortel.

    Pavi Binning, the current top-ranking Nortel executive and chief restructuring officer, got $1.33 million in incentives and a total of $1.95 million.

    Joe Flanagan, the former operations chief who left in February, got $1.1 million in incentive and $1.6 million in total compensation.

    George Riedel, the chief strategy officer who continues to play a key role in selling assets, got $997,875 in incentives and a total package of $1.5 million.

    Philippe Morin, the head of optical networking who will get a top job at Ciena, the new owner, got $719,424 and a package of $1.19 million.
  • wasthere
    Now does someone has any more doubts about the Corporate world we live in ? Even one of poorest managed company of the century and now bankrupt still continues to make millionaires out of it's executives. This will probably be remembered in the history books, as the biggest robberies and scams of these capitalists times !
  • wasthere
    One of the greatest legalized robbery of all time and played as a pure misrepresentation ; under chapter 13 bankruptcy law(re-structuring) while it is a pure liquidation of assets and should have been filed under chapter 7(liquidation).
    This gigantic masquerade has allowed all kinds of corporate suckers to continue getting paid full salary + undeserved bonuses at the expense of creditors.
  • freqmgr
    Actually this "bonus" is in line with former practice. NT execs were paid what many of them considered to be "low ball" salaries but that was made up in the bonus round. Depending on pay grade/role 100% was "normal". Of course in today's economy, and with sterlling reputations as managers/leaders, this type of pay package is needed to keep them from leaving for companies that dearly want their well demonstrated skill sets.
  • bankrupt_bob
    <<...this type of pay package is needed to keep them from leaving for companies that dearly want their well demonstrated skill sets>>

    ...you are kidding... right?! Sell the remainder of this POS company and you won't have "them" to pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
  • freqmgr
    Ahhh...but the "leadership" needs to keep things going...like a certain rabbit that advertises a battery brand.....
  • scalppeeler
    The bunny with the battery is the common stiff who actually does all the work while the managers and executives get paid double or more what the stiff makes for simply being listed above them on an org chart. That's the extent of it.
    Just like the royalty caste in the middle ages but somebody forgot to tell the capitalists that it is 2010.
  • freqmgr
    I agree

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