In less than a year, Nortel Networks has gone from a vibrant, venerable presence in the telecom world to a company auctioned off in pieces to the highest bidders – and many of those offers low-balled the actual assets’ value. Now, what’s left of the company is riddled with strife over the incompetence and mismanagement that led to the Jan. 14, 2009 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Pensioners have been left with no security, creditors with unpaid accounts and customers wondering how long before their Nortel systems grow obsolete.
Here, in order of lowest to highest, are our 10 most-read Nortel stories of the year, gathered from each our telecom publications – VON, xchange, PHONE+ and Billing & OSS World.
10. Nortel CEO's First Work E-Mail: Ego Got in Way?
Ah, those were the days. The days when Mike Zafirovski ran Nortel and took issue with the idea of CEOs being only “slightly” delusional. Fast-forward from the December 2005 e-mail – that ran complete with corporate acronyms for success and corny analogies – to now. Mike Z. has resigned from the bankrupt telecom equipment maker amid disgrace and still wants $12 million in compensation from the company he helped run into the ground.
9. Canada Should Save Nortel, Not GM, Says Former Exec
A former president of Nortel’s broadband division got pretty upset after Canada’s federal government agreed to help bail out the Canadian unit of General Motors, rather than the legendary Nortel.
8. Nortel in U.S. Loses $6M in One Month
Insolvent Nortel has been required to report its earnings each month and in just several weeks, the company managed to lose $6 million.
7. What if Avaya Loses Nortel Enterprise Auction?
Avaya Inc. took a big risk in assuming it would win the hotly contested auction for Nortel’s enterprise assets. Other companies had done the same with different Nortel properties over the summer, only to lose to deeper-pocketed rivals. So the question became, what would happen if Avaya didn’t get Nortel enterprise? (Which, by the way, it did.)
6. Nortel Enterprise Buy Could Heat Up Avaya-Cisco Duel
Even though Cisco Systems Inc. remains the world’s largest maker of networking gear, Avaya, with the benefit of Nortel’s enterprise unit, makes a formidable rival. The speculation then, lo these many months ago, centered on just how large a dent Avaya would put in Cisco’s market share.
