With telecoms equipment vendors, such as Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), reporting poor financial results the prospects for Nortel remaining anything other than a memory look increasingly slim. Market analysts on both sides of the Atlantic now predict the company will be broken into segments and sold off piecemeal, probably at knock-down prices.
Companies thought to be picking over Nortel's assets include Ericsson, although the Swedish company has recently backed away and is denying any interest, while Huawei Technologies has confirmed it has held discussions with Nortel which have seemingly not reached any conclusions. Alcatel-Lucent--still struggling to make a success of its own merger--has confirmed its disinterest in acquiring any Nortel assets, leaving NSN as the most likely bidder for the largest part of Nortel's business (its core carrier unit), including some R&D activities, having already made an informal offer.
While some analysts believe Mike Zafirovski, Nortel's CEO, is attempting to salvage the Nortel name by hanging on to a small part of the business, the majority of industry watchers warn that the company's value has been eroded by customer losses since Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection. The decision by Verizon Wireless not to include Nortel in its recent 4G contract awards was a hammer blow to any future success of Nortel.
For more on this story:
Financial Times
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